▪ I. ˈresty, a.1 Obs. exc. dial.
Also 6 restye, 6–7 -ie, 7 -ey; 9 dial. reasty, reesty.
[Variant of restiff (and restive) a.; cf. hasty, tardy. In senses 2–4 perh. associated to some extent with rest n.1 or v.1: cf. Fris. restich, Du. rustig quiet.]
1. = restive a. 3. a. Of horses or other animals.
| 1515 Barclay Egloges (1570) B iv b/2 A bad horse resty and flinging Oft casteth a man though he be well sitting. 1530 Palsgr. 322/2 Restye as a horse is, restif, restifue. 1605 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. iv. Lawe 339 Th' Ox, over-fat, too-strong, and resty, leaps About the Lands, casteth his yoke, and strikes. 1673 O. Walker Educ. 12 Beasts grow fierce and resty if not tamed and broken in youth. 1702 De Foe More Reformation 730 An Author who we can not understand, Is like a Resty Horse at no Command. 1782 F. Burney Cecilia i. vi, My horse has been so confounded resty, I could not tell how to get him along. 1883 Almondbury Gloss., Reaster, reasty horse, or raist-horse, a horse which will not draw; a restive horse. 1920 A. Huxley Leda 40 The machine is ready to start. The symbolic beasts grow resty, curveting where they stand. 1977 J. Aiken Five-Minute Marriage viii. 126 He guided his horses around the corner... The team appeared to be a trifle fresh and resty. |
| transf. 1733 Tull Horse-hoeing Husb. xix. 131 When that rich Land..is grown too vigorous and resty, they may soon take down its Mettle, by Sowing it a few Years in their Old Husbandry. |
b. Of persons.
| 1603 Drayton Bar. Wars iv. lii, Which restie growne, with your much Power, withdraw Your stiff'ned Necks from th' yoke of Civill Awe. 1627 E. F. Hist. Edw. II (1680) 79 The resty minds that kick at present greatness. 1686 Goad Celest. Bodies iii. i. 377 He must be very Resty that will not allow it for probable at least. 1710 S. Palmer Proverbs 16 Some children are naturally resty and stubborn, even at three or four. 1748 Chesterfield Lett. clxviii. (1792) II. 125 Whatever Court he went to (and he was often obliged to go himself to some resty and refractory ones) he as constantly prevailed. 1794 Gouv. Morris in Sparks Life & Writ. (1832) II. 411 If Paris runs resty, the revolution is done. 1846 Spurden Suppl. Forby's East Anglian Gloss., Reasty, restive, unruly; also pettish, quarrelsome, in a bad humour. |
c. Of actions, conduct, etc.
| a 1586 Sidney Astr. & Stella lxxx, But now spite of my heart my mouth will stay, And no spurre can his restie race renew. 1693 Locke Educ. §35 The ill and resty tricks, they have learn'd when young. 1719 D'Urfey Pills (1872) I. 343, I often have..to sing denied, But not through resty Peevishness, nor Pride. |
† 2. a. Disinclined for action or exertion; sluggish, indolent, lazy; inactive. Obs.
| 1565 Cooper Thesaurus, s.v. Desuetudo, Resides, &..tardi, restie and slow for lacke of vse. 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. lxxiv. 10 Thyne enemies surmyze thee to be restie and ydle bycause thou bestirrest thee not. 1609 B. Jonson Sil. Wom. i. i, Hee would grow resty else in his ease. His vertue would rust without action. 1649 Milton Eikon. Wks. 1851 III. 192 Some great household..where the Maister is too restie or too rich to say his own prayers. 1673 Dryden Marr. à la Mode iv. iii, O what a difference will she find betwixt a dull resty husband and a quick vigorous lover. 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) II. iii. i. 377 The Sun, and..the fresh Air of fanning Breezes..exercise the resty Plants, and scour the unactive Globe. |
| Comb. 1596 Edw. III, iii. iii, Presently they are as resty-stiff As 'twere a many over-ridden jades. |
† b. Of conditions. Obs.
| 1602 Sutton Disce Vivere x. (1847) 171 In continual Ease, in a resty slothfulness, void of all travail. 1620 Venner Via Recta (1650) 72 To those that lead a resty or studious kind of life, it is very hurtfull. 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia 107 You might shortly behold the idle and restie diseases of a divided multitude..substantially cured. |
† 3. Unoccupied, idle. Obs. rare—1.
| c 1540 tr. Pol. Ver. Eng. Hist. (Camden No. 36) 84 The Romaine soldiers, beinge restie [L. a laboribus vacui], beeganne to quarrell emonge them selves. |
† 4. Of land: Fallow, untilled. Obs. rare.
| 1601 Holland Pliny xviii. xix, It is thought sufficient for a teem of oxen to breake up (at the first tilth) in one day of restie or ley ground, one acre. 1649 W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653) 132 All old Resty Land, that hath not been Tilled of late. |
▪ II. † ˈresty, a.2 Obs.
[a. OF. resté left over, pa. pple. of rester rest v.2 See also rest a.]
Stale, rancid, reasty.
| a 1300 Gloss. W. de Biblesworth in Wright Vocab. (1857) I. 155 Chars restez, resty flees. 1499 Promp. Parv. (Pynson), Resty as flesshe, rancidus. 1508 Bk. Keruynge in Babees Bk. (1868) 272 Beware of fumosytees salte, senewe, fatte, resty & rawe. 1547 Boorde Introd. Knowl. ix. (1870) 149 Barelled butter, the whych is resty & salt. 1575 Turberv. Faulconrie 297 Put thereto Larde that is neither restie, nor ouersalted. 1657 R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 30 This butter..is not then to be endured, it is so restie and loathsome. 1671 H. M. tr. Erasm. Colloq. 232 O happy beggars! my wife boyled nothing here this day, besides Coleworts and resty Bacon. |