a. [f. FRUIT sb. + -Y1.]
1. Of or pertaining to or resembling fruit.
1657. R. Ligon, Barbadoes (1673), 72. Only this addition, which makes it transcend all Custards that art can make, though of natural ingredients; and that is, a fruity taste, which makes it strange and admirable.
1817. L. Hunt, Lett. to C. C. Clarke, in Gentl. Mag., May (1876), 600. All that is fine, floral, and fruity.
1850. Blackie, Æschylus, I. 81.
I delighted nothing less | |
Than doth the flowery calix, full surcharged | |
With fruity promise, when Joves welkin down | |
Distils the rainy blessing. |
1858. Bushnell, Nat. & Supernat., iv. (1864), 91. The succulent peach gathers its fruity parts about the nut or stone.
a. 1861. Mrs. Browning, Lett. R. H. Horne (1877), II. 131. I never saw a blooming girl of sixteen with a more fruity hopefulness in her countenance.
2. Of wine: Having the taste of the grape.
1851. D. Jerrold, St. Giles, xxviii. 281. Philosophy with a glass of good fruity portand yours is capital, one tastes blood and fibre in it.
1855. Athenæum, 13 Oct., 1194. Genuine Masdeu is a very fine fruity wine.
Hence Fruitiness.
1869. Contemp. Rev., XI. 357. Appreciating critics who write about its [a pictures] fruitiness, and juiciness, and pulpiness.
1895. Daily News, 10 April, 4/7. The wines of the last vintage are wanting in ripeness and fruitiness.