balmy, a.
(ˈbɑːmɪ)
[f. balm n. + -y1.]
1. Yielding or producing balm.
| 1667 Milton P.L. v. 24 What drops the Myrrhe, and what the balmie Reed. 1742 Collins Eclog. i. 49 The balmy shrub for you shall love our shore. |
† 2. Of the consistency of balm; resinous. Obs.
| 1782 Monro Anat. 14 The marrow is..oily and balmy in middle age. |
3. Delicately and deliciously fragrant.
| c 1500 Dunbar Gold. Targe 97 Ewiry blome..Opnyt & spred thair balmy leves. 1604 Shakes. Oth. v. ii. 16 Ile smell thee on the Tree. Oh Balmy breath. 1794 Burns Wks. IV. 313 Like a baumy kiss. 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 85 Under the shade of those balmy firs. |
4. fig. Deliciously soft and soothing.
| 1604 Shakes. Oth. ii. ii. 259 To haue their Balmy slumbers wak'd with strife. 1742 Young Nt. Th. i. 1 Tir'd Nature's sweet restorer, balmy Sleep! 1857 Heavysege Saul (1869) 161 The balmy sense of fault forgiven. |
5. Of wind, air, weather, etc. (combining senses 3 and 4): Deliciously mild, fragrant, and soothing.
| 1704 Pope Winter 48 The balmy zephyrs. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. xvii, And balmy drops..Slide from the bosom of the stars. 1867 M. E. Braddon R. Godwin II. v. 73 When the August weather was brightest and balmiest. |
6. Of healing virtue, medicinally soothing.
| 1746 Collins Ode to Pity i, With balmy hands his wounds to bind. 1796 Burke Regic. Peace Wks. 1842 II. 318 To assuage his bruised dignity with half a yard square of balmy diplomatick diachylon. 1826 E. Irving Babylon II. 391 The cure for a disease, is to send..balmy medicines. |
7. ‘Soft’, weak-minded, idiotic. Also as n. (see quot. 1903). See also barmy a. slang.
| 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 217/2 (Street-patterers' slang) Balmy, insane. 1859 Hotten Slang Dict., Balmy, insane. 1891 Farmer Slang II. 224/1 Balmy in one's crumpet. 1892 Daily News 17 Nov. 6/6 Regarding the old ‘balmy’ criminals, they are poor creatures, far more to be pitied than condemned. 1903 Ld. W. Nevill Penal Servitude 150 These are officially classed as ‘W. M.’—that is, weak-minded—but are invariably known colloquially as ‘balmies’. Ibid. 151 A man who appears to be playing ‘balmy’. 1912 Masefield Dauber ii. in English Rev. Oct. 350 Painting's a balmy's job [ed. 1913, p. 21 a balmy job] not worth a nail. 1922 ‘R. Crompton’ Just—William xi. §i. 206 ‘I s'pose you're balmy on her,’ he said resignedly. 1929 J. B. Priestley Good Companions iii. i. 460 People here must have gone balmy. |
8. absol. Sleep. (Cf. sense 4.) slang.
| 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop viii, As it's rather late, I'll try and get a wink or two of the balmy. |