ˈweather-beaten, pa. pple. and ppl. a.
1. Beaten or buffeted by wind and rain; that has been exposed to severe weather.
| c 1560 T. Mowntayne in Narratives Reform. (Camden) 210 Thence to Colchester, and there toke shypynge, thynkynge to have gone ynto Seland,..but we were so whether⁓beatyn that of force we were glad to returne bake agayn. 1563 Golding Cæsar iv. (1565) 102 b, Most of our shyps were thus broosed and weatherbeaten. 1589 Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 32 To rest our wearie and weather-beaten bones. 1632 J. Hayward tr. Biondi's Eromena 16 The galleys of Sardegna being (by a great tempest) wether-beaten and driven to that shore. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. vi. §137 The King's harassed, weatherbeaten, and half-starved troops. 1722 Croxall Fables æsop xli. 76 The Sun..darted his warm sultry Beams upon the Head of the poor weather⁓beaten Traveller. 1830 J. G. Strutt Sylva Brit. 141 It becomes harder and tougher in proportion as it is weather⁓beaten. 1882 ‘Ouida’ Bimbi 98 The tall old houses are weatherbeaten into the most delicious hues. 1904 Daily Chron. 16 July 9/2 Another weather-beaten pigeon sought rest on the brigantine Jantyre. |
| fig. or in fig. context. 1621 T. Williamson tr. Goulart's Wise Vieillard 22 At that time when Saint Cyprian liued, the whole world was iudged to be very much weather⁓beaten. 1639 Fuller Holy War ii. xxxvii. 94 Mean time Jerusalem was a poore weather-beaten kingdome. 1668 Bp. E. Hopkins Van. World Wks. (1710) 19 If honourable, we are but raised above others to be the more weather-beaten. |
2. As
adj., expressing the result.
a. Of things: Worn, defaced, or damaged by exposure to the weather.
| 1547 Surrey Eccles. iii. 12 Auncient walls to race,..and of their wether beten stones, to buylde some new deuyse. 1593 Norden Spec. Brit., Midsx. 38 Pancras Church standeth all alone..old and wetherbeaten. 1608 Machin Dumb Knt. i. B 3, Orators wiues shortly will bee knowne like images on water staires, euer in one wetherbeaten suite. a 1618 Ralegh Royal Navy 27 They make their Ocum..of old seere and weather-beaten ropes. 1697 Lond. Gaz. No. 3260/4 Wearing a Weather-beaten Periwig. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair i, A very small and weather-beaten old cow's-skin trunk. 1860 G. J. Whyte-Melville Mkt. Harb. xii, Under the weather-beaten winkers and shabby harness of a four-horse waggon. |
b. Of persons, their countenances, etc.: Bronzed, coarsened, toughened, hardened by exposure to all kinds of weather.
| 1530 Palsgr. 844/1 Weather beaten, as men be that have lyen in the felde or see. 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. I. 175/1 Harold answered, that they were not priests, but wether⁓beaten and hardie souldiers. 1607 Dekker Knt.'s Conjur. ii. D 1 b, Neither they, nor the weather-beatenst Cosmographicall Starre-catcher of em all. 1662 Hibbert Syntagma Theol. ii. 144 Such was his undoubted resolution, that neither their great words, nor their high looks could daunt him, Weather-beaten-souldier (as I may so speak) in Christianity. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1780) A aa 2, s.v. Emmariné, Matelot emmariné, a case-hardened or weather⁓beaten tar; a veteran sailor. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. 5 May (1815) 63 An old man, with a wooden leg and a weather⁓beaten face. 1853 Kingsley Hypatia xviii. 209 The scarred and weatherbeaten features of the old warrior. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xv. III. 613 Two weatherbeaten old seamen who had risen from being cabin boys to be Admirals. |
Similarly
† ˈweather-beat (
dial. -bet) ppl. a. Also
† ˈweather-beat v. trans. rare—0.
† ˈweather-beating vbl. n.| 1586 [? J. Case] Praise Mus. vi. 75 Alas what pleasure could they take at the whippe and ploughtaile in so often and vncessant labours, such bitter weatherbeatings. 1598 Florio, Sbattere,..to thrash, to wetherbeate. 1615 Chapman Odyss. vi. 193 [Ulysses] So wet, so weather-beate. 1621 T. Granger Expos. Eccles. xii. 3. 319 The teeth..standing like weather-beate stakes,..falling out one after another. 1719 D'Urfey Pills IV. 198 The Devil he was so Weather⁓beat, He was forc'd to take to a Tree. 1886 S.W. Lincs. Gloss., Weather-bet, weather-beaten. |