foggy, a.
(ˈfɒgɪ)
Also (in sense 1 feggy) Sc. fuggie.
[f. fog n.1 + -y1.
The identity of the word in its various senses is somewhat doubtful, but the development of meaning suggested below seems plausible.]
1. a. Resembling, consisting of, or covered with ‘fog’ or coarse grass. b. Sc. Covered with moss, mossy.
| 1635 Tom a Lincolne ii. in Thoms Prose Rom. (1858) II. 332 Toads croaking in foggy grasse. 1747 R. Maxwell Sel. Trans. Soc. Improv. Agric. Scot. 18 It may be laid down with Grass seeds..so to ly, unless it turn sour or foggy. 1790 A. Wilson Disconsolate Wren Poet. Wks. (1846) 96, I spied a bonny wee bit Wren, Lone on a fuggy stane. 1806 A. Douglas Poems 87 Yonder foggy mountain. a 1810 Tannahill Poems (1846) 75 He liked to stray, By fuggie rocks, or castle gray. 1875 ‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Sports i. i. v. §5. 92 A field of good feggy grass. |
† 2. Boggy, marshy. Obs.
| a 1568 Coverdale Bk. Death i. xl. 160 He that is fallen into a depe foggy wel and sticketh fast in it. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. (1586) 78 In the loamie and leane ground, as in the fatte and foggie. [Cf. sense 3.] 1651 R. Child in Hartlib's Legacy (1655) 11 Low, moist, foggy ground. a 1661 Fuller Worthies, Bedfordsh. i. (1662) 114 The foggy fens in the next County. |
† 3. a. Of flesh, etc.: Flabby or spongy in consistency; not solid; = boggy a. b. Hence of persons or animals: Unwholesomely bloated, swollen with flabby and unhealthy corpulence, puffy. Also quasi-adv. in foggy fat. Obs.
| a 1529 Skelton Elynour Rummyng 483 All foggy fat she was. 1530 Palsgr. 313/1 Foggy to full of waste flesshe. 1562 W. Bullein Dial. Soarnes & Chir. 29 b, In case the fleshe appere foggie and fattishe. 1565 Golding Ovid's Met. xv. (1567) 189 b, Then greene, and voyd of strength, and lush, and foggye, is the blade. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 530 Which [horses] being foggie fat, and delicately brought up. 1618 Chapman Hesiod ii. 24 And with a leane hand, stroke a foggie foot. 1657 S. Purchas Pol. Flying-Ins. 40 They return to feed, and that alwayes of the purest honey, whereby they may become so foggy, that [etc.]. a 1704 T. Brown Praise Poverty Wks. 1730 I. 100 Drowned in foggy quagmires of fat and dropsy. 1741 Compl. Fam. Piece ii. i. 300 Being very fat and foggy by means of their gross Food. 1817 Sporting Mag. L. 26 How foggy, unwieldly..and helpless are such crazy mortals. 1828 Carr Craven Gloss., Foggy, fat, gross. |
† c. Of food: Apt to puff up the body. Obs.
| 1657 S. Purchas Pol. Flying-Ins. i. xv. 93 Woad, which affords a foggy food that over-lades the Bees. 1761 Earl Pembroke Milit. Equit. (1778) 123 All sorts of grains are foggy feeding, and though they plump up the body, they do not give a wholesome and sound fat. |
† d. Of ale, etc.: Full of floating particles, thick. Obs. Cf. fat a. 7 a.
| 1619 Pasquil's Palin. (1877) 155 The Draymans Beere is not so cleere, and foggy Ale is thicker. 1764 Low Life 67 In search of..thick foggy Beer and Ale. |
4. a. Of air, mist, cloud, etc.: Thick, murky. Hence (through fog n.2, which appears to be a back-formation from this sense): Of the nature of, or resembling, fog or thick mist; full of, or abounding in, fog.
[For the development of this sense from 3, cf. fat a. 7 c, and Lat. pinguis aer, pingue cælum. But some of the quotations suggest allusion to sense 2.]
| 1544 Late Exped. Scotl. C ij b, That mornynge being very mystie and foggie. 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Luke xviii. 34 With muche foggie derkenesse. 1570 Turberv. Penitent Louer Epitaphes, etc. 112 With errors foggie mist at first, that Reason gaue no light. 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. iii. v. 50 Like foggy South, puffing with winde and raine. 1624 Wotton Archit. 3 That it [the Aire] be not..subiect to any foggy noysomenesse from Fenns or Marshes neere adioyning. 1627 May Lucan v. (1635) Iij b, The thicke aire was..clogg'd with foggy stormes. 1733–4 Berkeley Let. to Prior 22 Jan. Wks. 1871 IV. 212, I myself have gotten a cold this sharp foggy weather. 1797 Nelson in A. Duncan Life (1806) 44 The action happening on a foggy day. 1812 P. Hawker Diary (1893) I. 63 The..foggy asthmatic town of Glasgow. 1859 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. III. 15 On a foggy October morning. 1877 M. M. Grant Sun-Maid i, He pointed across the foggy valley. 1885 L'pool. Daily Post 1 May 4/9 Days of foggy drizzle. |
b. fig. Obscure, dull, bemuddled, confused.
In some of the earlier quots. the sense may be 3, which in fig. use coincides nearly with this sense.
| 1603 Hayward Answ. to Doleman ii. 35 Your course, foggie, drowsie conceite, that there are few or none simple monarchies in the world. 1637 J. Pocklington Altare Chr. xxiv. 172 A dull device of a foggie braine and willing blunderer. 1737 Ozell Rabelais I. 365 His Understanding must be very foggy. 1771 Foote Maid of B. i. Wks. 1799 II. 214 Your rival is a fusty, foggy, lumbering log! 1888 Burgon Lives 12 Gd. Men I. iii. 358 Making merry over some extremely foggy production. |
5. a. Of the eye: Beclouded, dim. b. Not clear to one's mind, etc., dim, indistinct. Used negatively in superl., with ellipsis of idea, notion.
| 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge (1849) 90/2 A dull and foggy sort of idea that Mrs. Varden wasn't fond of him. 1847 Alb. Smith Chr. Tadpole xix. (1879) 177 The cold foggy grey eyes of the old lady looked after him. 1883 F. M. Crawford Dr. Claudius i. 7 All this uncertain saturation of foggy visions and contradictory speculations. 1917 Punch 22 Aug. 145 Uncle. ‘..Wonder who she is.’ Niece. ‘Haven't the foggiest. Must be pre-war.’ 1933 D. L. Sayers Murder must Advertise viii. 147 ‘Who was the benefactor?’ ‘I don't know. Do you, Mr. Bredon?’ ‘Haven't the foggiest.’ 1951 J. B. Priestley Festival at Farbridge ii. iii. 375 ‘Is that a good idea?’ asked Laura. ‘My dear, I haven't the foggiest.’ 1966 I. Jefferies House Surgeon iii. 27 ‘D'you know where he's to be found at this time?’ ‘Haven't the foggiest.’ 1967 P. McGerr Murder is Absurd i. 14 ‘Then you've no idea what his play's about?’ ‘Not the foggiest,’ she said cheerfully. |
6. Photogr. Fogged, indistinct. Cf. fog n.2 4.
| 1859 Photogr. News 9 Sept. 7 A greater tendency to give foggy pictures. 1873 Spon Workshop Rec. i. 292/2 Many weak thin foggy negatives. |
7. slang. Not quite sober.
| 1823 Moor Suffolk Words, Foggy, a quaint term for one ‘somewhat bemused in beer’; not very clear-headed. 1867 in Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. |
8. Comb., as foggy-brained.
| 1594 Nashe Terrors Nt. Wks. (Grosart) III. 232 Feeding on foggie-braind melancholly. |