a. [f. FROTH sb. + -Y1.]
1. Full of, covered with, or accompanied by froth or foam; foamy.
1533. Frith, Disput. Purgat. (1829), 157. Their … frothy waves.
1592. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 901. The hunted boar Whose frothy mouth … A second fear through all her sinews spread.
1613. Uncasing of Machivils Instr., C ij b.
| Beare with a Tapster, though his cans be frothie; | |
| But raile on a Broker whose clothes are mothie. |
1615. Latham, Falconry (1633), 117. When you do finde your Hawkes mouth and throat to bee continually frothy and furred with white, then you may thinke and mistrust the same to proceed out of the inner parts.
1700. Dryden, Palamon & Arcite, II. 204.
| Or as two Boars whom Love to Battel draws | |
| With rising Bristles and with froathy Jaws | |
| Their adverse Breasts with Tusks oblique they wound. |
1740. Somerville, Hobbinol, III. 281.
| In wasteful Luxury, and wanton Joy | |
| Lavish had spilt the Cyder’s frothy Flood. |
1822–34. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), II. 450. A frothy cough ensues.
1846. G. E. Day, trans. Simon’s Anim. Chem., II. 311. There were only 8 ounces of urine excreted in twenty-four hours; it was turbid and of a reddish colour, very frothy, and when allowed to stand, deposited a white flocculent sediment.
1871. B. Taylor, Faust (1875), II. II. iii. 124.
| Back the frothy wave is flowing, | |
| Now no longer downward going; | |
| Shakes the bed, the waters roar, | |
| Cracks and smokes the stony shore. |
† b. Frothy Poppy, the Bladder Campion.
So called because it was supposed that cuckoo-spit was more frequently found on this than on other plants.
1597. Gerarde, Herball, II. ccxiv. 551. Called … in English Spatling Poppie, frothie Poppie, and white Ben.
1878. in Britten & Holland, Plant-n.
2. Consisting of froth or light bubbles, of the nature of or resembling foam, spumous.
1605. Timme, Quersit., I. vii. 32. Aetius hath also almost the same wordes; sauing that hee addeth this concerning the froth of salt: The flower of Salt saith hee, is frothy, cleaning to the rockes that are next adioyening.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., V. iii. 237. That spumous frothy dew or exudation.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 400. About his churning Chaps the frothy Bubbles rise.
1799. Med. Jrnl., II. 140. His saliva was remarkably frothy.
1839. Murchison, Silur. Syst., I. xxv. 320. The trap forms a dyke about sixteen feet in width, having the frothy breccia on one side.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 454. The tapetum becomes disorganised and forms a frothy mucilage.
† b. Soft, not firm or solid, flabby. Obs.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 740. You need not feare that Bathing should make them [the Turks’ bodies] Frouthie.
1658. Rowland, Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 1070. She [a spider] hath a frothy body.
3. fig. Vain, empty, unsubstantial, trifling. Also, of a person: Having no depth of character, conviction, knowledge, etc.; shallow.
1593. Nashe, 4 Lett. Confut., 16. The abiectest and frothiest forme of Diuinitie.
1622. Wither, Mistr., Philar., Wks. (1633), 686.
| Never took her heart delight | |
| In your Court-Hermaphrodite, | |
| Or such frothy Gallants as | |
| For the Times Heroes passe. |
a. 1652. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., iii. (1673), 47. When contentious disputes, and frothy reasonings, and contemplations informed by fleshly affections, conversant onely about the out-side of Nature, begin to rise up in mens Souls; they may then be in some danger of depressing all those In-bred notions of a Deity.
1661. Boyle, Style of Script. (1675), 189. When I compare, I say, the Composures of our Frothy Censurers with those of the Sacred Orators.
1707. Reflex. upon Ridicule, 66. Most young People are too frothy, and talk without knowing what they say.
1742. Richardson, Pamela, III. 412. Adding, in his frothy Way, Now can I say, I have saluted an Angel.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., II. viii. (1871), 123. Madly enough he preached, it is true, as Enthusiasts and first Missionaries are wont, with imperfect utterance, amid much frothy rant.
1884. Edna Lyall, We Two, xvi. A mere ranter, a frothy mob orator.
1885. David Hannay, Granada, in Mag. of Art, VIII. Sept., 450/2. That wealth of ornament and colour which has inspired some good literature and much frothy fine writing.
absol. 1762. Foote, Orators, II. Wks. 1790, I. 219. You will have at one view … the frothy, the turgid, the calm, and the clamorous.
4. Comb., as frothy-looking adj.
1880. Miss Bird, Japan, I. 133. There is no underclothing, with its bands, frills, gussets, and button-holes; the poorer women wear none, and those above them wear, like Yuki, an under-dress of a frothy-looking silk crêpe, as simply made as the upper one.
Hence Frothily adv., Frothiness.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 259. The humidity, heate, frothinesse and whitenes.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1737), VIII. ix. 264. The profaneness and frothiness of his discourse.
1727. Bailey, vol. II., Frothily, with Froth; also emptily, not solidly or substantially, lightly.
1823. Lamb, Elia, On some Old Actors. The … face … that looked out so formally flat in Foppington, so frothily pert in Tattle.
1846. G. E. Day, trans. Simon’s Anim. Chem., II. 5. According to Dr. Wright, pure saliva is a limpid fluid, having a faint blue tinge, and a slight degree of viscidity. It is perfectly uniform in consistence, and unobscured by frothiness or flocculi.
1890. Longm. Mag., XVII. Nov., 109. This middle class would be missed if it disappeared, and left an unbridged gulf between genius, on the one side, and persons who frothily declaim about genius on the other.
