a. [f. THREAD sb. + -Y.]
† 1. Full of or covered with thread. Obs.
1594. Willobie, Avisa, 37 b. When threedy spindle full was grown.
1757. Dyer, Fleece, III. 135. The thready shuttle glides along the lines.
2. Of thread-like texture; composed of fine fibers; stringy, fibrous.
c. 1425. [implied in THREADINESS].
1715. trans. Pancirollus’ Rerum Mem., I. I. iv. 12. Its threaddy Substance may be weav’d into a Web.
1750. trans. Leonardus’ Mirr. Stones, 71. Amianton is a stone of a lucid colour, and thready, like feathered alum.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XII. 371/2. The bark [of the mulberry tree] … is rough, thick, thready, and fit for being made into ropes.
1809. trans. Landt’s Descr. Feroe Isl. (1810), 141. Compact, thready, or radiant zeolite.
1826. Carlyle, Early Lett. (1886), II. 350. Abundance of grand thready peats.
b. Of liquid: Forming strings; viscid, ropy.
1733. Ordinary of Newgate, No. 1 Advt., Urine … foul, slimy, thready.
1846. G. E. Day, trans. Simon’s Anim. Chem., II. 182. The mucus will become very tough, and almost thready.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 435. [The fluid of a pyonephrosis] is more or less thready and glairy.
c. Of a plant: Bearing thread-like fibers or parts; filamentous, hairy. rare–1.
1804. Charlotte Smith, Conversations, etc., II. Notes 204. Thready Yucca, an Aloe, I believe.
d. Having thread-like markings; veined.
1601. Holland, Pliny (1634), I. 493. Ioyners doe chuse the mistresse threadie grain that is most streight.
e. Threadbare; showing the threads.
1910. Nation, 15 Jan., 639/2. The envelope fluttered to the thready carpet.
3. Of the nature of, consisting of, or resembling a thread or a mass of loose threads; thread-like, hair-like; of a root: fibrous.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, I. ii. § 4. 3. The roote is threddie.
1621. T. Granger, Comm. Eccles. xii. 6. 325. The small and threddie rootes of a tree.
1671. Marten, Voy. Spitzbergen, in Acc. Sev. Late Voy., II. (1694), 92. Her Feathers are thready or hairy.
1698. J. Petiver, in Phil. Trans., XX. 405. Its Style is thready, and about an Inch long.
1733. W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 231. Here it will twist and fasten its thready Entanglements to them almost from top to bottom.
1879. G. Macdonald, Sir Gibbie, i. Her black hair … would have revealed a thready glitter of grey. Ibid. (1882), Castle Warlock, xxviii. Many a thready weed.
4. Of the pulse: see quot. 1899.
1753. N. Torriano, Gangr. Sore Throat, 109. A frequent, and very thready Pulse.
1764. Phil. Trans., LIV. 239. His pulse was too quick … and withall low and thready.
1860–1. Flor. Nightingale, Nursing, 80. The pulse becomes quick, perhaps 130, and so thready, it is not like a pulse at all, but like a string vibrating just underneath the skin.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 621. The pulse becomes small, sharp, wiry or thready.
1899. Syd. Soc. Lex., Thready pulse, a small, scarcely perceptible pulse found in the terminal stages of fatal diseases.
5. Of the voice, etc.: Dry and thin; wanting in fullness. (Cf. THREAD sb. 4 b.)
1860. All Year Round, No. 41. 344. Incapable of knowing how exceedingly high he is pitching his thready old voice.
1874. Lisle Carr, Jud. Gwynne, I. iii. 92. Sickly pianos and thready harps.
1902. Miss Broughton, Lavinia (ed. Tauchn.), 235. A fuller sound in the thready voice.
