a. Also Sc. craigie, -y. [f. CRAG sb.1 + -Y.]

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  1.  Abounding in or characterized by crags; of the nature of a crag, steep and rugged.

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1447.  Bokenham, Seyntys (Roxb.), 108. Thys hyl is craggy and eke cavernous.

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1555.  Eden, Decades, 89. Craggy rockes full of the dennes of wylde beastes.

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1606.  Warner, Alb. Eng., XVI. cvii. (1612), 415. So inaccessible is Wales, so mountainous, and craggie.

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1667.  Milton, P. L., II. 289. Whose Bark … Or Pinnace anchors in a craggy Bay.

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1769.  De Foe’s Tour Gt. Brit., III. 154. We … entered Craven, which is a very hilly and craggy Country.

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1786.  Gilpin, Obs. Pict. Beauty, Cumbrld. (1788), II. 227. Bunster-dale opens with a grand craggy mountain on the right.

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1883.  Stevenson, Treasure Isl., II. xiv. 110. One of the hills, with two quaint, craggy peaks.

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  2.  transf. Hard and rough or rugged in form.

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1568.  T. Howell, Arb. Amitie (1879), 54. Weare the hart of craggie flint or steele.

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1665.  J. Webb, Stone-Heng (1725), 140. Three craggy Blocks.

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1741.  Monro, Anat. Bones (ed. 3), 101. The … craggy Part of each of these Bones.

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1807–26.  S. Cooper, First Lines Surg. (ed. 5), 197. Neither is the swelling always irregular and craggy.

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1890.  Conan Doyle, Firm of Girdlestone, xxxiii. 261. It would have been a study for a Rembrandt to depict the craggy, strongly lined face of the old merchant.

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  3.  fig. Hard to get through or deal with; rough, rugged, difficult; perilous. Obs. (exc. as directly fig. of prec. senses).

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1583.  Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 28. Smooth this craggye trauayl.

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1632.  Le Grys, trans. Velleius Paterc., 64. Hee … brought the Common wealth into a craggie and redoubtable danger.

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1685.  Cotton, trans. Montaigne (1877), I. 76. The quest of it is craggy, difficult, and painful.

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1856.  Emerson, Eng. Traits, Lit., Wks. (Bohn), II. 104. Byron ‘liked something craggy to break his mind upon.’

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  b.  Of sound: Rough, harsh. rare.

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1774.  W. Mitford, Harmony of Lang., 153. The whole passage has a broken, or rather, to borrow a metaphor from a sister art, a craggy form.

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1856.  Sunday at Home, 134/1. Sounds that are very harsh, craggy, and grating to English ears.

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  4.  Comb., as craggy-faced, -forked, etc.

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1598.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. Handy-Crafts, 247. One day he sate … Upon a steep Rock’s craggy-forked crown.

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