cloudy, a.
(ˈklaʊdɪ)
[f. cloud n. + -y1: OE. had cl{uacu}diᵹ from cl{uacu}d = cloud 1.]
† 1. Rocky; hilly. Obs.
| c 893 K. ælfred Oros. i. i, Norþmanna land..is on sumum stowum swyðe cludiᵹ. c 1200 Ormin 2734, I cludiȝ landess munntess. a 1400–50 Alexander 4863 Cloȝes at was cloude, he clynterand torres, Rochis & rogh stanes, rokkis vnfaire. |
2. Of cloud; of the nature of cloud.
| c 1300 St. Brandan 495 Cloudi and berninge smoke. 1535 Coverdale Ps. xcix. 7 He spake vnto them out of the cloudy piler. 1635 N. Carpenter Geog. Del. ii. iii. 47 By reason of raine and clowdy vapours. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 930 Thence..As in a cloudy Chair, ascending rides. 1746 Collins Ode Fear 38 Wrapp'd in thy cloudy veil. a 1861 Mrs. Browning House of Clouds Wks. 1883 III. 69, I would build a cloudy house For my thoughts to live in. |
b. Of or pertaining to the clouds.
| 1626 Bacon Sylva (1677) §663 The moisture of Snow is the finest moisture, for it is the Froth of the Cloudy Waters. 1635 Swan Spec. M. iv. §2 (1643) 56 The out-spread firmament either is ended in the cloudie region, or is further extended. 1818 Byron Ch. Har. iv. i, A thousand years their cloudy wings expand. 1857 H. Reed Lect. Eng. Poets II. xv. 202 That tradition which has come down..upon the cloudy wings of three thousand years. |
3. Characterized by the presence of clouds; abounding in or full of clouds.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) III. 467 Whan þe day is dym and clowdy. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 84 Clowdy, or fulle of clowdys, nubidus. 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 81 Cloudy mornynges turne to cleere after noones. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 310 Like Boreas..when..He sweeps the Skies, and clears the cloudy north. 1849 Longfellow Seaside, Twilight, The twilight is sad and cloudy. |
4. Not transparent or clear.
| 1587 Golding De Mornay xiv. 215 This Minde..one day shal see clearely and not by these dimme and clowdie spectacles. 1679 Confinement, a Poem 18 Cloudy Ale goes round. a 1691 Boyle (J.), I saw a clowdy diamond. 1799 G. Smith Labor. I. 148 The paste would be cloudy and full of blisters. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 82 Pour a little vinegar into the cloudy liquid. |
b. Having cloud-like markings, clouded.
| 1676 Lond. Gaz. No. 1131/4 A large grizle gray Gelding..has a cloudy face. 1715–20 Pope Iliad xiii. 767 An olive's cloudy grain the handle made. |
† c. Dim, obscure, faint. Obs. rare.
| 1551 Recorde Cast. Knowl. (1556) 272 The first greatnes, the seconde..the syxte, vnder whiche they are that be called Cloudy starres. 1594 Blundevil Exerc. iii. i. xxiii. (ed. 7) 328 Fourteene [stars]..whereof five be called cloudy, and the other darke, because they are not to be seene but of a very quick and sharpe sight. |
5. fig. Darkened or clouded by ignorance, etc.; (of ideas, perception, language) dim, obscure, indistinct; not clear.
| c 1400 Test. Love Prol. (1560) 272/2 That I so unwoorthely clothed all togither in the cloudie cloude of unconning. 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. Introd. v, With cloudy fygures He [Lydgate] cloked the trouth of all his scryptures. 1581 Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 52 The Historian..can, in the cloudy knowledge of mankinde, hardly escape from many lyes. 1649 Bounds Publ. Obed. (1650) 52 That Oath is Cloudy..and so cannot be justly called its owne interpreter. 1724 Watts Logic ii. iii. §3 Their thoughts..have something confused and cloudy in them. 1847 Lewes Hist. Philos. (1867) II. 264 A cloudy writer. |
6. fig. Darkened by misfortune, grief, anger, forebodings, etc.; full of gloom or trouble; gloomy, sullen, frowning.
| c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. i. i. 4, Fortune clowdy haþ chaunged hir disceyuable chere to mewarde. 1561 T. Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtyer ii. K iiij b, Cloudy and troublous heauinesse. 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. 64 The Scithians..have all cloudy foreheads. 1670 Cotton Espernon iii. xii. 593 The Battel of Fontarabie..prov'd cloudy, and malevolent to the French Renown. 1726 Wodrow Corr. (1843) III. 331 The state of things with us is very cloudy. 1859 Tennyson Merlin & V. 154 Vivien..Would fain have wrought upon his cloudy mood. |
† b. Of persons. Obs.
| 1593 Shakes. Lucr. 1084 Cloudie Lvcrece shames her selfe to see. 1605 ― Macb. iii. vi. 41 The clowdy Messenger turnes me his backe. 1706 Logan in Pa. Hist. Soc. Mem. X. 132 Yet the Govr. went out very cloudy. 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) I. 29 The Jews were naturally a very cloudy People, and wou'd endure little Raillery in anything. |
7. Under a cloud of disgrace or disrepute; ‘shady.’ colloq.
| 1886 Stevenson Pr. Otto ii. ii. 87 A..lady of a dishevelled reputation, wife..of a cloudy count. |
8. Comb., as cloudy-eyed, cloudy-headed, cloudy-topped, adjs.
| 1596 C. Fitzgeffrey Sir F. Drake (1881) 38 The Pyranean cloudie-topped mountaines. 1676 Lond. Gaz. No. 1117/4 A bright dun Mare..cloudy headed. 1710 Ibid. No. 4719/4 A middle sized thin and cloudy-ey'd Woman. |