clammy, a.
(ˈklæmɪ)
Also 5 claymy, 6–7 clammye, (7 clamy).
[Form-history obscure: first found as claymy 1398–1495, clammy c 1425, dates which agree with the first appearance of clam a.1 and v.1, with which it is now associated in sense. It may have been thence formed with suffix -y: cf. sticky, clingy. But it is also possible that an earlier *clámiᵹ, from OE. clám, mud, sticky clay, cloam, was shortened to clammy (cf. silly, sorry, hallow), and then associated with clam a. and v. Further evidence is wanted.]
1. gen. Soft, moist, and sticky; viscous, tenacious, adhesive.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vi. i. (1495) 186 The fyrste chyldhode wythout teeth is yet ful tender and nesshe and qwauy and claymy. 1528 Paynel Salerne Regim. O iij b, An yele is a slymye fyshe, clammy, and specialy a stopper. 1551 Turner Herbal i. (1568) A vj b, It hath blewe floures, the hole herbe is clammy, and hath a stronge sauoure. 1570 Levins Manip. 101 Clammye, tenax, viscosus. a 1793 G. White Selborne (1853) II. lii. 300 The web was of a very clammy quality. 1865 Lubbock Preh. Times xiii. (1878) 475 A soft substance, rather clammy and sweet. |
b. Of bread: Doughy. Of soil, earth: Moist and unctuous.
| 1530 Palsgr. 307/2 Clammy as breed is, nat through baken, pasteux. 1555 Fardle Facions i. ii. 33 The earth at that tyme beyng but clammie and softe. 1560 Whitehorne Ord. Souldiours (1588) 45 b, This redde earth is the fattest, and the clammiest of all the rest. 1655 Moufet & Bennet Health's Improv. (1746) 340 The oven..not too hot at the first, lest the outside be burnt and the inside clamy. 1872 Baker Nile Tribut. viii. 131, I followed the herd..through deep clammy ground and high grass. |
c. Of liquids: Viscid.
| 1540 Elyot Image Gov. 72 Great abundance of superfluouse humours, thicke and clammie. 1650 Fuller Pisgah ii. xiii. 270 No vessels sailing thereon [Dead Sea], the clammy water being a real Remora to obstruct their passage. 1720 Gay Poet. Wks. (1745) II. 78 Where the long table floats with clammy beer. 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 128 Trees.. yielding a clammy juice. |
d. Of vapour, perspiration, mist, etc.: Damp, and as it were clinging to the skin.
| 1635 Swan Spec. M. v. §2 (1643) 91 Clammie Exhalations are scattered abroad in the aire. 1697 Bp. Patrick Comm. Ex. x. 21 ‘Thick darkness’..made, I suppose, by such clammy Fogs that they sensibly affected the Egyptians. a 1703 Pomfret Poet. Wks. (1833) 91 When to the margin of the grave we come..Our face is moistened with a clammy sweat. 1872 Black Adv. Phaeton xxv. 346 Stifling in the clammy atmosphere of Soho. |
e. Of the skin, etc.: Suffused with sticky damp, e.g. in the death-sweat.
| c 1425 Cookery Bks. (1888) 25 Ȝif þin hond waxe clammy. 1626 T. H. Caussin's Holy Crt. 38 His hands are globes made round, there is nothing rugged, clammy, or bowed. 1795 Southey Joan of Arc vi. 448 The cold sweat stands Upon his clammy limbs. a 1839 Praed Poems (1864) I. 203 The sign of the Cross on his clammy brow. |
† 2. fig. Sluggish, lagging (like a clammy slug).
| a 1613 Overbury A Wife (1638) 99 His dull eye, and lowring head, and a certain clammy benummed pace. |