a. Also (in sense 1 feggy) Sc. fuggie. [f. FOG sb.1 + -Y1.
The identity of the word in its various senses is somewhat doubtful, but the development of meaning suggested below seems plausible.]
1. a. Resembling, consisting of, or covered with ‘fog’ or coarse grass. b. Sc. Covered with moss, mossy.
1635. Tom a Lincolne, II. in Thoms, Prose Rom. (1858), II. 331–2. The clocke to tell the houres of the night, were hissing snakes, and toads croaking in foggy grasse.
1743. R. Maxwell, Sel. Trans. Soc. Improv. Agric. Scot., 18. It may be laid down with Grass-seeds, and turned again into Meadow, with Success; so to ly, unless it turn sour or foggy.
1790. A. Wilson, Disconsolate Wren, Poet. Wks. (1846), 96.
| I spied a bonny wee bit Wren, | |
| Lone on a fuggy stane. |
1806. A. Douglas, Poems, 87.
| Now I’ll awa, an’ careless rove | |
| Owre yonder foggy mountain, | |
| Where raptur’d shepherds sing their love, | |
| By ilka chrystal fountain. |
a. 1810. Tannahill, Poems (1846), 75.
| In wilyart glens he lik’d to stray, | |
| By foggie rocks, or castle gray. |
1875. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, I. I. v. § 5. 92. Now and then a field of good feggy grass.
† 2. Boggy, marshy. Obs.
a. 1568. Coverdale, Bk. Death, I. xl. 160. He that is fallen into a depe foggy wel, and sticketh fast in it, wil he not strayght way call vnto euery man, to helpe hym out, one way or other?
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (1586), 78. In the loamie and leane grounde, as in the fatte and foggie. [Cf. sense 3.]
1651. R. Child, in Hartlib’s Legacy (1655), 11. Low, moist, foggy ground.
1661. Fuller, Worthies, Bedfordsh., I. (1662), 114. Blame it not, if, sensible of its sad condition, and presaging its fall into the foggy fens in the next county, it be loath to leave this pleasant place; as who would not prolong their own happiness?
† 3. Of flesh, etc.: Flabby or spongy in consistency; not solid; = BOGGY a. b. Hence of persons or animals: Unwholesomely bloated, swollen with flabby and unhealthy corpulence, puffy. Also quasi-adv. in foggy fat. Obs.
a. 1529. Skelton, Elynour Rummyng, 480.
| She dranke so of the dregges, | |
| The dropsy was in her legges; | |
| Her face glystryng lyke glas; | |
| All foggy fat she was. |
1530. Palsgr., 313/1. Foggy to full of waste flesshe.
1562. Bulleyn, Dial. Soarnes & Chir., 29 b. In case the fleshe appere foggie and fattishe.
1565. Golding, Ovid’s Met., XV. (1567), 189 b.
| Then greene, and voyd of strength, and lush, and foggye, is the blade, | |
| And cheeres the husbandman with hope. |
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks (1621), 530. A great number of goodly horses died there, which being foggie fat, and delicatly brought vp in cold stables, could not endure the vehemencie of the heat.
1618. Chapman, Hesiod, II. 24.
| Sit stooping to the paine, still pointing too’t, | |
| And with a leane hand, stroke a foggie foot. |
1657. S. Purchas, Pol. Flying-Ins., 40. They return to feed, and that alwayes of the purest honey, whereby they may become so foggy, that oft times before the Bees meddle with them, you may see hundreds in a day crawl rather than flye out of the Hive.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Praise Poverty, Wks. 1730, I. 100. The body is sound and free from diseases, while the rich are corpulent, drown’d in foggy quagmires of fat and dropsy; rack’d with the pox, gout, stone, fevers, and the like.
1737. Compl. Fam.-Piece, II. i. 300. Nor are they [Hares] able to run long before the Hounds, for want of Breath, as being very fat and foggy by means of their gross Food.
1817. Sporting Mag., L. 26. How foggy, unwieldly … and helpless are such crazy mortals.
1828. Carr, Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), 158. Foggy, Fat, gross.
† b. Of food: Apt to puff up the body. Obs.
1657. S. Purchas, Pol. Flying-Ins., I. xv. 93. Woad, which affords a foggy food that over-lades the Bees, and makes them miscarry in the fields.
1761. Earl Pembroke, Milit. Equit. (1778), 123. All sorts of grains are foggy feeding, and though they plump up the body, they do not give a wholesome and sound fat.
† c. Of ale, etc.: Full of floating particles, thick. Obs. Cf. FAT a. 7 a.
1619. Pasquil’s Palin. (1877), 155.
| The Broth with barly sodden, | |
| compares not with the licker, | |
| The draymans Beere is not so cleere, | |
| and foggy Ale is thicker. |
1764. Low Life, 67. Citizens marching through the Town by fours and fives towards the Fields, in search of prick’d Wine, sour Cyder, and thick foggy Beer and Ale.
4. Of air, mist, cloud, etc.: Thick, murky. Hence (through FOG sb.2, which appears to be a back-formation from this sense): Of the nature of, or resembling, fog or thick mist; full of, or abounding in, fog.
[For the development of this sense from 3, cf. FAT a. 7 c, and Lat. pinguis aer, pingue cælum. But some of the quotations suggest allusion to sense 2.]
1544. Late Exped. Scotl., C ij b. That mornynge being very mystie and foggie, we hadde perfite knowledge by our espyalles.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Luke, xviii. 34. With muche foggie derkenesse.
1570. Turberv., Penitent Louer, Epitaphes, etc. 112.
| Whose vele did daze mine eies, | |
| and darekned so my sight | |
| With errors foggie mist at first, | |
| that Reason gaue no light. |
1600. Shaks., As You Like It, III. v. 49.
| You foolish Shepheard, wherefore do you follow her | |
| Like foggy South, puffing with winde and raine. |
1624. Wotton, Archit., 3. That it [the Aire] be not too grosse, nor too penetratiue; Not subiect to any foggy noysomenesse, from Fenns or Marshes neere adioyning.
1627. May, Lucan, V. (1635), I ij b.
| The thicke aire was growne | |
| Infected with the dampes of Acheron, | |
| And clogg’d with foggy stormes. |
1733–4. Berkeley, Lett. to Prior, 22 Jan., Wks. 1871, IV. 212. I myself have gotten a cold this sharp foggy weather, having been obliged, contrary to my wonted custom, to be much abroad paying compliments and returning visits.
1797. Nelson, in A. Duncan, Life (1806), 44. The action happening on a foggy day, when the fog cleared up they only saw fifteen sail of the line, therefore concluded, at least, five of ours were sunk in the action.
1812. Col. Hawker, Diary (1893) I. 63. Returned to the vile, stinking, foggy, asthmatic town of Glasgow.
1859. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., III. 15. A bright cheering apparition to surprise one on a foggy October morning, over one’s breakfast—that most trying institution for people who are ‘nervous’ and ‘don’t sleep!’
1877. Mar. M. Grant, Sun-Maid, i. With much pride and pomposity he pointed across the foggy valley.
1885. L’pool. Daily Post, 1 May, 4/9. Days of foggy drizzle.
b. fig. Obscure, dull, bemuddled, confused.
In some of the earlier quots. the sense may be 3, which in fig. use coincides nearly with this sense.
1603. Hayward, Answ. to Doleman, ii. 35. I will passe ouer your course, foggie, drowsie conceite, that there are few or none simple monarchies in the world, (for it would tire any to toyle after your impertinent errours).
1637. Pocklington, Altare Chr., xxiv. 172. Proves to be but a dull device of a foggie braine, and willing blunderer, that light upon it in a mist.
1737. Ozell, Rabelais, I. 365. His Understanding must be very foggy.
1771. Foote, Maid of B., I. Wks. 1799, II. 214. Your rival is a fusty, foggy, lumbering log!
1888. Burgon, Lives of Twelve Good Men, I. III. 358. Making merry over some extremely foggy production.
5. a. Of the eye: Beclouded, dim. b. Not clear to one’s mind, etc., dim, indistinct.
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge (1849), 90/2. Entertaining a dull and foggy sort of idea that Mrs. Varden wasn’t fond of him.
1847. Alb. Smith, Chr. Tadpole, xix. (1879), 177. At times he forgot his work altogether, until the cold foggy grey eyes of the old lady looked after him.
1883. F. M. Crawford, Dr. Claudius, i. 7. He had been far better able to deal with questions of life, so long as he had only handled the exact sciences, than he was now, through all this uncertain saturation of foggy visions and contradictory speculations.
6. Photogr. Fogged, indistinct. Cf. FOG sb.2 4.
1859. Photogr. News, 9 Sept., 7/2. An iron developing solution always has a greater tendency to give foggy pictures than one prepared with pryogallic acid.
1873. Spon, Workshop Rec., I. 292/2. Many weak, thin, foggy negatives may thus be made to produce passable prints.
7. slang. Not quite sober.
1823. Moor, Suffolk Words, Foggy. A quaint term for one ‘somewhat bemused in beer’: not very clear-headed.
1867. in Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.
8. Comb., as foggy-brained.
1594. Nashe, Terrors Nt., Wks. (Grosart), III. 232. For they feeding on foggie-braind melancholly, engender thereof many vncouth terrible monsters.
