▪ I. scaly, a.
(ˈskeɪlɪ)
Also 6–7 skaly, 6–7, 9 scalie, 7 scaily, Sc. skailly, 7–9 scaley.
[f. scale n.2 + -y.]
1. Abounding in, covered with, or consisting of scales; having a surface that peels off in thin plates or layers.
| 1538 Elyot Dict., Squammosus, skaly. 1594 Plat Jewellho, iii. 74 If your teeth be verie scalie, let som expert Barber first take off the scales. 1615 Crooke Body of Man 442 The scalie Sutures of the Temple-bones. 1682 Wheler Journ. to Greece i. 14 The surface..is covered with a scaly rock. 1793 Gentl. Mag. May 422/1 An altar-tomb, or altar, of scaly stone. 1857 Miller Elem. Chem., Org. iii. 82 A scaly, sweetish, gummy mass. 1892 E. Lawless Grania ii. 7 The wind..tearing off fragments of scaly stone from the rocks. |
2. a. Of fishes, serpents, and other animals; freq. in poetry = pertaining to or consisting of fish (scaly flock, herd, nation, tribe).
| 1528 Paynell Salerne's Regim. O ij b, The more skaly that fishe is, the better hit is. 1595 Spenser Epithal. 57 The silver scaly trouts. c 1614 Sir W. Mure Dido & æneas iii. 127 The skailly squadrones of the liquid lakes. 1629 Milton Hymn Nativ. xviii, The scaly Horrour of his foulded tail. 1666 Dryden Ann. Mirab. xv, So hear the scaly herd when Proteus blows. 1704 Pope Windsor For. 139 The patient fisher takes his silent stand,..With looks unmov'd, he hopes the scaly breed. 1741 Compl. Fam.-Piece i. ii. 108 Season the Scaley Side first. 1828 Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. I. 450 The body of these fishes is scaly. 1857 J. Hamilton Less. from Gt. Biogr. (1859) 278 His own line quivered with a scaly captive. 1872 Baker Nile Trib. viii. 115 A strip of the scaly hide of a crocodile. |
b. In specific names, usu. repr. L. squamosus, squamatus, or squameus: see quots. scaly ant-eater, scaly lizard, names for the pangolins.
| 1681 Grew Musæum i. iii. 46 The Scaly-Lizard..is a yard and ½ long. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1862) I. vi. iii. 468 The Pangolin, which has been usually called the scaly lizard. 1802 Shaw Gen. Zool. III. 74 Scaly Tortoise. Testudo Squamata. 1812 Ibid. VIII. 463 Scaly Lory. Psittacus squameus. 1840 Penny Cycl. XVII. 186/1 Pangolins, a name in common use to designate the Scaly Ant-eaters. 1872 Coues Key N. Amer. Birds 227 Genus Scardafella Bonaparte. Scaly Dove. |
c. scaly fish (slang): see quot.
| 1796 Grose Dict. Vulgar T. (ed. 3), Scaly Fish, an honest, rough, blunt sailor. |
3. a. Of plants and their parts: Covered with scales or consisting of scale-like elements.
| 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. ccxxxviii. 588 Small scaly knops, like to the knops of Corne flower. 1688 Holme Armoury ii. 80/2 The Arbor Vitæ, or Tree of Life hath a small scaly leaf. 1786 Abercrombie Gard. Assist. 242 The main bulbs of lilies, of the scaly tribe, will not keep good so long out of the ground as the solid bulbous kinds. 1839 Lindley Introd. Bot. iii. (ed. 3) 470 Scaly.., covered with minute scales, fixed by one end; as the young shoots of the Pine tribe. 1857 A. Gray First Less. Bot. (1866) 46 When the scales are narrow and separate, as in the Lily, the bulb is said to be scaly. 1884 Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 622 Rhizomes with scaly leaves. |
b. scaly fern or scaly spleenwort, the ceterach. scaly water-moss, Fontinalis squamosa.
| 1796 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) III. 789 Scaly Water-moss. 1859 Miss Pratt Brit. Grasses 224 Common Ceterach, or Scaly Spleenwort. |
4. a. Of skin diseases. scaly ringworm, tinea imbricata. scaly tetter, psoriasis.
| 1575 Turberv. Venerie lxxix. (1908) 228 The skaly Mange, which..taketh off the skinne where it goeth. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 112 Those who make a free use of it,..have a scaly appearance, not unlike the leprosy. 1799 Med. Jrnl. II. 112 Scaly Tetter. 1826 S. Cooper First Lines Surg. (ed. 5) 194 In the majority of cancerous diseases, the skin has a yellowish or lead-coloured tinge, and is dry and scaly. 1898 P. Manson Trop. Dis. Introd. p. xiii, Tropical scaly ringworm. |
b. transf. Of trees: Infested with the scale insect.
| 1894 Times 14 May 3/4 This [wash] is strained before being sprayed upon the scaly trees. |
5. Of armour. Cf. scale-armour s.v. scale n.2 and scaled. Chiefly poet.
| 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. i. 146 A scalie Gauntlet now, with ioints of Steele, Must gloue this hand. 1747 Gray Cat 16 Their scaly armour's Tyrian hue. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. xviii. II. 120 His cuirassiers..glittering with their scaly armour. 1791 Cowper Iliad xv. 641 His corslet thick With plates of scaly brass. |
6. Min. (See quots.)
| 1796 Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) II. 339 Brown Scaly Iron Ore. 1815 Aikin Man. Min. (ed. 2) 200 Scaly Talc,..an aggregate of minute scales of a greenish colour. Ibid. 202 Scaly Chlorite,..composed of glimmering scaly particles. 1816 R. Jameson Min. (ed. 2) III. 243 Red Ironstone. This species is divided into four subspecies, viz. Scaly Red Ironore [etc.]. |
7. slang. Poor, shabby, despicable; esp. (of persons) mean, stingy; occas., in poor health, ‘seedy’.
| 1793 Southey Lett. (1856) I. 19 Poor Anax! he was quite scaly before his departure, but is now recovering apace. 1821 Egan Life in London ii. iii. (Farmer), If you are too scaly to tip for it, I'll shell out, and shame you. 1823 Spirit Publ. Jrnls. 233 They had proved themselves so very scaley, by forgetting to remember the waiter. 1844 Dickens Mart. Chuz. xxviii, A reg'lar scaly old shop, warn't it? 1875 Besant & Rice Harp & Cr. I. x. 206 If I were an author—they are a scaly lot, and thank Heaven I am not one. |
8. Comb., chiefly parasynthetic. scaly-bark (hickory), the shagbark hickory, Carya ovata, or its edible nuts; cf. hickory 1; scaly-tail = scale-tail s.v. scale n.1 12; so scaly-tailed a.
| 1634 Milton Comus (Facsimile MS. 1899, 13), The scalie-harnest dragon. c 1711 Petiver Gazophyl. vii. 64 Scaly-like Fruit. 1775 J. Adair Hist. Amer. Indians 360 Filberts..are as sweet and thin-shelled, as the scaly bark hiccory-nuts. 1781 Latham Gen. Syn. Birds I. 246 Scaly-breasted Parrakeet. 1785 T. Jefferson Notes on Virginia vi. 63 Scaly bark hiccory. 1803 Shaw Gen. Zool. IV. 400 Scaly-tailed scarus. 1814 F. Pursh Flora Amer. II. 637 This useful tree is known by the name of..Scaly-bark Hickory, on account of its bark, which is torn in loose fragments. 1816 R. Jameson Char. Min. (ed. 2) 237 Scaly foliated, when the folia cover each other only partially. 1836 Penny Cycl. VI. 332/1 Carya alba, white-shell-bark, shag-bark, scaly-bark hickory (Juglans squamosa, Michaux). 1852 Mayne Reid Desert Home 198 The tree is known among backwoodsmen as the ‘scaly bark’. 1859 Miss Pratt Brit. Grasses 21 Scaly-stalked Club-rush. 1893 Advance (Chicago) 23 Mar., A pretty young woman rings your bell to ask, ‘You all buy some scaly-barks?’ 1906 ‘O. Henry’ Rolling Stones (1912) 8, I saw..a little flaxen-haired man with a face like a scaly-bark hickory-nut. 1921 Brit. Mus. Return 97 in Parl. Papers XXVII. 651 A West African Scaly-tail (Anomalurus erythronotus), and an Ituri Scaly-tail (Anomalurus pusillus). 1964 L. S. Crandall Management of Wild Mammals in Captivity 229 The life-histories of the scaly-tails are not well known. 1962 M. Burton Syst. Dict. Mammals of World 121 Scaly-tailed Flying Squirrels..not related to true squirrels. 1964 E. P. Walker et al. Mammals of World II. 750/2 Scaly-tailed squirrels den in hollow trees. 1975 P. W. Hanney Rodents ii. 30 There are no flying squirrels in Africa, but in the west of the continent their niche is filled by..the Anomaluridae or scaly-tailed squirrels. |
▪ II. scaly, n. S. Afr.
(ˈskeɪlɪ)
Also scaley.
[f. the adj.]
A large yellow-fish, Barbus natalensis, of the family Cyprinidæ, found in certain rivers in Natal.
| 1947 K. H. Barnard Pict. Guide S. Afr. Fishes 56 The well-known Scaley..of Natal is a near relative of the Yellow-fish. 1971 Rand Daily Mail (Johannesburg) 27 Mar. 23/3 An interesting observation last week was the presence of shoals of scalies in the Bushmans river. 1975 Stand. Encycl. S. Afr. XI. 563/1 The Natal scaly..reaches 5 kg and is restricted to the Pongola system and the rivers of Natal. |