wintry, a.
(ˈwɪntrɪ)
Also 7 winterie, 9 -y.
[OE. wintriᵹ, = OHG. wintirig, etc., f. winter n.1 + -y1; but in modern use a new formation.]
1. Of or pertaining to winter; occurring, existing, or found in winter; adapted or suitable for winter. Now rare or merged in 2, being replaced by ‘winter’ attrib. (winter n.1 3).
| c 888 ælfred Boeth. v. §2 Swa deð eac se ðe wintreᵹum wederum wile blostman secan. c 893 ― Oros. i. i. 12 On þæm wintreᵹum tidum. |
| 1611 Cotgr., Hyvernal, winterie, winterlie. c 1630 Milton Passion 6 In Wintry solstice like the shortn'd light Soon swallow'd up in dark and long out-living night. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 271 The wise Ant her wintry Store provides. 1697 ― æneis vi. 298 The wintry Misleto. 1770 Goldsm. Des. Vill. 133 To pick her wintry faggot from the thorn. 1795 Cowper Needless Alarm 20 Her berries red, With which the fieldfare, wint'ry guest, is fed. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. v. 40 Where the wintry edifices had fallen. |
2. Having the quality of winter; of such a kind as occurs in winter; characteristic of winter.
| 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. xi. 21 When wintry storme his wrathfull wreck does threat. 1713 Rowe Jane Shore ii. 24 The Wintry Sky Descends in Storms. c 1781 Burns Winter i, The wintry west extends his blast. 1825 Scott Betrothed ii, A barbed horse and his rider will fear to stem the wintry flood. 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 120 At this period, the climate of equinoctial lands might resemble that of the present temperate zone, or perhaps be far more wintery. 1856 Kane Arctic Expl. I. xxvii. 355 This mossing..is a frightfully wintry operation. 1876 C. F. Hall Polar Exped. 415 Great ice-crystals..gave the vessel a wintery appearance. |
3. Exposed or subject to the effect or influence of winter; chilled or blasted by winter.
| 1697 Dryden æneis iv. 205 When he leaves the frost Of wintry Xanthus. 1803 Heber Palestine 56 The wintry top of giant Lebanon. 1817 Shelley Rev. Islam vi. xxviii, The wintry loneliness Of those dead leaves. 1853 Dickens Bleak Ho. xii, Endless avenues and cross-avenues of wintry trees. 1918 Blackw. Mag. Oct. 464/2 You saw nothing but a field or two of bleached wintry grass. |
4. fig. with various shades of meaning;
esp. (
a) Aged, infirm or withered from age; (of hair) white with age, ‘snowy’; (
b) devoid of fervour or affection, ‘cold’, ‘chilling’; (
c) destitute of warmth or brightness, dismal, dreary, cheerless.
| 1633 P. Fletcher Pisc. Ecl. vii. i, Cold, wintry, wither'd Tithon. 1748 Richardson Clarissa lvi. (1768) III. 281 Nodding at each other in opposite chimney-corners in a winter-evening, and over a wintry Love. 1822 Shelley Scenes fr. Faust ii. 15 Nothing of such an influence do I feel. My body is all wintry. 1846 A. Marsh Fr. Darcy xliii, A faint wintry kind of hope. 1847 Tennyson Princess vi. 310 So she, and turn'd askance a wintry eye. 1876 Besant & Rice Golden Butterfly vi, Her cold face shone..with the wintry light of a forced smile. 1895 Pall Mall Gaz. 5 Oct. 3/3 His latest work met with a somewhat wintry welcome. 1902 W. Adamson Life Jos. Parker xv. 192 The..wintry locks of wisdom. |
5. Used
advb. qualifying another
adj. poet.| 1892 W. Watson Poems 9 Thine..Is wintry chill. |
Hence
ˈwintrify (
-faɪ)
v., trans. to make wintry (
rare);
ˈwintrily adv., in a wintry manner (
lit. and
fig.);
ˈwintriness, wintry quality or condition (
lit. and
fig.).
| 1855 Lynch Lett. to Scattered vi. 88 Wise divine Love..re-imparting to a world which hate had *wintrified the summer warmth of life. |
| c 1822 Beddoes Poems, Pygmalion 159 Thou..dost shiver *Wintrily sad. 1867–8 J. Thomson In the Room ii, Flies..now slept wintrily abashed. 1884 Harper's Mag. Sept. 613/1 She..began..to smile wintrily. |
| 1824 in Spirit Publ. Jrnls. (1825) 512 With all this *winteryness, he is still a boy. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xxxii. (1856) 277 To the east and west there is no such interception to our winteryness. 1916 Spectator 18 Mar. 383/1 On some morning when the harvest's done, And autumn its first wintriness reveals. |