Spotty

a. and sb. Also 5 spotti, 6–7 spottie. [f. SPOT sb.¹ + -Y.]

  A.  adj. 1. Full of, marked with, spots; spotted.

1340.  Ayenb., 192. Þou ne sselt naȝt maky none sacrefice to God of oxe ne of ssep þet by spotty.

1382.  Wyclif, Gen. xxx. 35. He seuerde … the wetheres, dyuerse and spotti.

c. 1400.  Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), IV. xxvi. 71. A clere myrroure wyll more playnly represente the fourmes … of thynges … than wylle another that is fowle and spotty.

c. 1440.  Pallad. on Husb., VIII. 74. Yf hit [sc. the ram’s tongue] be spotty, that a man may wite Yf he bigete hym spotty lombis yonge.

1513.  Act 5 Hen. VIII., c. 4 § 1. If the same Worsted … taketh any Wet, incontinent it will shew spotty and foul.

1587.  Mascall, Govt. Cattle, Sheep (1627), 200. The spottie Rams will commonly be seene in the Lambes.

1620.  Venner, Via Recta, ii. 40. The colour of the face becommeth pale…, and the skin … polluted with a white spotty deformity.

1667.  Milton, P. L., I. 291. To descry new Lands, Rivers or Mountains in her spotty Globe.

1816.  Singer, Hist. Cards, 95, note. All the impressions are similar to that of the frontispiece, being spotty or greyish.

1822–7.  Good, Study Med. (1829), V. 567. The spotty and minutely tubercular lichens.

1874.  Ruskin, Fors Clav., xlvi. 229. A dozen of the fattest, shiniest, spottiest trout I ever saw.

  Comb.  1598.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. III. Furies, 391. He strangled His spightfull stepdam’s Dragon spotty-spangled.

1884.  Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 625. Actodromas,… Spotty-throat Sandpipers.

  b.  fig. or in fig. context.

a. 1400.  Leg. Rood (1871), 213. A white lambe, with senn blak Spotty myȝt he neuere bene.

1561.  T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., IV. viii. (1634), 569. The Church,… whereof all the members are spotty and very uncleane.

1631.  R. Byfield, Doctr. Sabb., 112. You would prove of Christians, spotty feasters.

1675.  N. Lee, Nero, II. ii. The Gods rain curses on me … If e’re I harbour’d … a thought But what was Noble, of your spotty loves.

  2.  Patchy; lacking in uniformity or harmony:

  a.  Of painting.

1812.  Examiner, 25 May, 329/1. The lights … are sometimes spotty.

1884.  Bazaar, 22 Dec., 664/1. Walters is showing a disposition for more lively colouring, but … this year’s paintings … are hard and spotty.

  b.  Of literary work.

a. 1849.  Poe, Lit. Crit., Mr. Ward, Wks. 1865, III. 160. In no other supposition can we reconcile the spotty appearance of the whole with a belief in the sanity of the author.

1870.  Lowell, Study Wind., 261. The true artist in language is never spotty, and needs no guide-boards of admiring italics.

  3.  Occurring in spots; characterized by such occurrence.

1821.  Examiner, 284/2. Their spotty and crowded arrangement.

1892.  Stevenson, Across the Plains, 79. A rough, spotty undergrowth partially conceals the sand.

  B.  sb. A small wrasse of New Zealand, Labrichthys bothryocosmus.

1872.  in Morris, Austral Eng., s.v. Poddly.

1878.  Trans. New Zeal. Instit., XI. 384. Wrasse, Parrot-fish, and Spotties were often in the market.