gluey, a.
(ˈgl(j)uːɪ)
Forms: 4–5 gluwy, 6–7 glewey, glewie, gluie, 6–8 gluy, (7 gleiwye, 8 gleuwy), 5–9 glewy, 8– gluey.
[f. glue n. + -y1.]
Resembling glue; having the properties of glue; full of, or smeared with, glue; viscous, glutinous, sticky. In early use: † Bituminous.
| 1382 Wyclif Gen. xiv. 10 The wodi valei forsothe had manye pyttis of gluwy [v.r. glewyche] cley. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. lvii. (1495) 172 In the fyrste joynynge of the bones is a maner of glewy and glemy moysture. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. i. 75 And loke yf hit [a clod] be glewy, tough to trete. 1587 Harrison England ii. xxi. (1877) i. 333 There is a kind of glewie matter which holdeth birds so fast as birdlime. 1695 Blackmore Pr. Arth. iv. 104 Part is spun in silken Threads, and Clings Entangled in the Grass in glewy Strings. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VIII. 99 Letting fall upon them a few drops of gluey matter with which their bodies are provided. 1884 J. Colborne Hicks Pasha 180 A crass, gluey substance filled his throat. |
| Comb. 1866–7 Livingstone Last Jrnls. (1873) I. viii. 196 Gluey-looking gum. |
| transf. and fig. c 1430 Pilgr. Lyf Manhode iv. xiii. (1869) 183 Ful of cley and arestinge, and glewy is þilke, of wordlich richesse of wurshipe, of strengthe of idel fairnesse. 1649 G. Daniel Trinarch. To Rdr. 18 Till waken'd by the Clangor of fresh Quarts It breake the Gleiwye Prison, and vp-starts A fresh. 1663 Cowley Cutter Coleman St. i. Wks. 1710 II. 813, I will not have one Penny of the Principal pass through such glewy Fingers. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) II. 446 It is possible to gain the art of grasping our ideas without letting them grasp upon the mind, or take such gluey hold as that we cannot wipe off at pleasure. |
Hence
ˈglueyness, the quality, condition, or state of being gluey.
| 1611 Cotgr., Glueur, glewinesse, clamminesse. 1659 tr. Comenius' Gate Lang. Unl. x. marg., Which..ropeth out by reason of its clamminess or gluiness. 1727 in Bailey vol. II, Gluiness. 1733 Cheyne Eng. Malady i. iii. §2 (1734) 16 This Class of nervous Disorders seems..to arise from a..Glewyness or Viscidity of the Animal Juices. |