a. [f. CLOUD sb. + -Y: OE. had clúdiʓ from clúd = CLOUD 1.]
† 1. Rocky; hilly. Obs.
c. 893. K. Ælfred, Oros., I. i. Norþmanna land … is on sumum stowum swyðe cludiʓ.
c. 1200. Ormin, 2734. I cludiȝ landess munntess.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 4863. Cloȝes at was cloude, he clynterand torres, Rochis & rogh stanes, rokkis vnfaire.
2. Of cloud; of the nature of cloud.
c. 1300. St. Brandan, 495. Cloudi and berninge smoke.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. xcix. 7. He spake vnto them out of the cloudy piler.
1635. N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., II. iii. 47. By reason of raine and clowdy vapours.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 930. Thence … As in a cloudy Chair, ascending rides.
1746. Collins, Ode Fear, 38. Wrapp’d in thy cloudy veil.
a. 1861. Mrs. Browning, House of Clouds, Wks. 1883, III. 69. I would build a cloudy house For my thoughts to live in.
b. Of or pertaining to the clouds.
1626. Bacon, Sylva (1677), § 663. The moisture of Snow is the finest moisture, for it is the Froth of the Cloudy Waters.
1635. Swan, Spec. M., iv. § 2 (1643), 56. The out-spread firmament either is ended in the cloudie region, or is further extended.
1818. Byron, Ch. Har., IV. i. A thousand years their cloudy wings expand.
1857. H. Reed, Lect. Eng. Poets, II. xv. 202. That tradition which has come down … upon the cloudy wings of three thousand years.
3. Characterized by the presence of clouds; abounding in or full of clouds.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), III. 467. Whan þe day is dym and clowdy.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 84. Clowdy, or fulle of clowdys, nubidus.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 81. Cloudy mornynges turne to cléere after noones.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 310. Like Boreas … when … He sweeps the Skies, and clears the cloudy north.
1849. Longf., Seaside, Twilight. The twilight is sad and cloudy.
4. Not transparent or clear.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xiv. 215. This Minde … one day shal see clearely and not by these dimme and clowdie spectacles.
1672. Boyle, Origin Gems, 48 (J.). Those [Diamonds] that were cloudy or foul.
1679. [C. Cotton], The Confinement: a Poem, 18. Cloudy Ale, goes round.
1799. G. Smith, Labor., I. 148. The paste would be cloudy and full of blisters.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 82. Pour a little vinegar into the cloudy liquid.
b. Having cloud-like markings, clouded.
1676. Lond. Gaz., No. 1131/4. A large grizle gray Gelding … has a cloudy face.
1715–20. Pope, Iliad, XIII. 767. An olive’s cloudy grain the handle made.
† c. Dim, obscure, faint. Obs. rare.
1551. Recorde, Cast. Knowl. (1556), 272. The first greatnes, the seconde … the syxte, vnder whiche they are that be called Cloudy starres.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., III. I. xxiii. (ed. 7), 328. Fourteene [stars] … whereof five be called cloudy, and the other darke, because they are not to be seene but of a very quick and sharpe sight.
5. fig. Darkened or clouded by ignorance, etc.; (of ideas, perception, language) dim, obscure, indistinct; not clear.
c. 1400. Test. Love, Prol. (1560), 272/2. That I so unwoorthely clothed all togither in the cloudie cloude of unconning.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., Introd. v. With cloudy fygures He [Lydgate] cloked the trouth of all his scryptures.
1581. Sidney, Apol. Poetrie (Arb.), 52. The Historian … can, in the cloudy knowledge of mankinde, hardly escape from many lyes.
1649. Bounds Publ. Obed., 57. That Oath is Cloudy … and so cannot be justly called it’s owne interpreter.
1724. Watts, Logic, II. iii. § 3. Their thoughts … have something confused and cloudy in them.
1847. Lewes, Hist. Philos. (1867), II. 264. A cloudy writer.
6. fig. Darkened by misfortune, grief, anger, forebodings, etc.; full of gloom or trouble; gloomy, sullen, frowning.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., I. i. 4. Fortune clowdy haþ chaunged hir disceyuable chere to mewarde.
1561. T. Hoby, trans. Castiglione’s Courtyer, II. K iiij b. In steade of open & cleere thoughtes there entreth cloudy and troublous heauinesse accompanied with a thousand heart grieffes.
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., 64. The Scithians … have all cloudy foreheads.
1670. Cotton, Espernon, III. XII. 593. The Battel of Fontarabie … prov’d cloudy, and malevolent to the French Renown.
1726. Wodrow, Corr. (1843), III. 331. The state of things with us is very cloudy.
1859. Tennyson, Merlin & Vivien, 154. Vivien … Would fain have wrought upon his cloudy mood.
† b. Of persons. Obs.
1593. Shaks., Lucr., 1084. Cloudie Lvcrece shames her selfe to see. Ibid. (1605), Macb., III. vi. 41. The clowdy Messenger turnes me his backe.
1706. Logan, in Pa. Hist. Soc. Mem., X. 132. Yet the Govr. went out very cloudy.
1711. Shaftesb., Charac. (1737), I. 29. The Jews were naturally a very cloudy People, and wou’d endure little Raillery in anything.
7. Under a cloud of disgrace or disrepute; ‘shady.’ colloq.
1886. Stevenson, Pr. Otto, II. ii. 87. A … lady of a dishevelled reputation, wife … of a cloudy count.
8. Comb., as cloudy-eyed, -headed, -topped, adjs.
1596. Fitz-Geffrey, Sir F. Drake (1881), 38. The Pyranean cloudie-topped mountaines.
1676. Lond. Gaz., No. 1117/4. A bright dun Mare … cloudy headed. Ibid. (1710), No. 4719/4. A middle sized thin and cloudy-ey’d Woman.
