unctuous, a.
(ˈʌŋktjuːəs)
Also 4–7 vnctuous, 6 ounctuous; 5, 7 vnctuos.
[ad. med.L. unctuōs-us, f. L. unct-um ointment, f. unct-, ppl. stem of ung(u)ĕre to anoint. Cf. OF. unctueus (F. onctueux), It. and Sp. untuoso, Pg. unctuoso.]
1. Of the nature or quality of an unguent or ointment; oily, greasy.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 113 Þe fruit of olyue is ful of liȝt, likynge, and vnctuous. 1528 Paynell Salerne's Regim. b ij b, The vnctuous fleme whiche is engendred by mynglynge, of vnctuous bloud and fleme. 1555 Eden Decades (Arb.) 293 Gummes..and other vnctuous frutes and trees growing in hotte regions. 1604 F. Herring Mod. Defence 22 Sallet oile, butter, or any other vnctuous things. a 1691 Boyle Hist. Air (1692) 202 As if all the unctuous parts that were wanting in the dried portion of the cheese had retired thither. 1733 Phil. Trans. XXXVIII. 64 When this Operation succeeds rightly, there comes forth, First, a thick unctuous Oil. 1818 Art Preserv. Feet 105 The unctuous matter which exudes from excretory vessels. 1875 C. C. Blake Zool. 152 The poison itself is an unctuous gelatinous fluid. |
b. Of meat: Greasy, fat, rich. Now
arch.| 1495 Trevisa's Barth. De P.R. xix. xlv. 888 Vnctuous meete fletyth aboue for the lyghtnesse therof. 1539 Elyot Cast. Helthe (1541) 18 b, Meates..fatte and vnctuous, nourisheth, and maketh soluble. 1555 Eden Decades (Arb.) 147 When their fingers are imbrued with any ounctuous meates. 1610 B. Jonson Alch. ii. ii, The swelling vnctuous paps Of a fat pregnant sow. 1650 Bulwer Anthrop. 241 They feed upon unctuous and sweet meats. 1821 Lamb Elia i. Grace before Meat, Those unctuous morsels of deer's flesh. |
| transf. 1675 Grew Disc. Tastes Plants i. §13 Contrary to an Unctuous Taste, are Astringent and Pungent. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 162/2 The exquisite and unctuous taste which this excellent mollusk gives. |
c. Characterized by the presence of oil or fat.
| 1641 Milton Reform. ii. Wks. 1851 III. 66 Warming their Palace Kitchins, and from thence their unctuous and epicurean paunches, with the almes of the blind. 1768 [see 1 d]. 1791 Cowper Iliad ii. 664 Pallas rear'd him: her own unctuous fane She made his habitation. 1837 Dickens Pickw. iv, There was something in the sound of the last word, which roused the unctuous boy. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Charac. Wks. (Bohn) II. 62 English day-labourers..are of an unctuous texture. |
d. unctuous sucker: (see
quot.).
| 1768 Pennant Brit. Zool. (1776) III. 135 Unctuous Sucker. This fish takes the name of sea snail from the soft and unctuous texture of its body, resembling that of the land snail. |
2. Of ground or soil: Of a soft adhesive nature; fat, rich.
| 1555 Eden Decades (Arb.) 227 As fat and vnctuous groundes..yelde a fast and firme moysture. 1675 Evelyn Terra (1676) 30 Good and excellent Earth should be..not too unctuous nor too lean. 1693 ― De la Quint. Compl. Gard. I. 18 Some [soils] are Unctuous and Sticking together. 1707 Mortimer Husb. 68 A soft unctuous Chalk, which is the best for Lands. 1777 Robertson Hist. Amer. (1778) I. 474 Their hunger is so great as compels them to eat..a kind of unctuous earth. 1813 Bakewell Introd. Geol. (1815) 297 When the matrix, or the substance which principally fills veins, is a soft unctuous clay. 1839 Murchison Silurian System 435 A layer of unctuous shale or fuller's earth. 1867 D. G. Mitchell Rural Studies 293 There are farms I know, unctuous with an accumulated fertility. |
3. Of vapours, etc.: Partaking of the nature of oil or grease.
| 1606 N. B[axter] Sydney's Ourania D 3 b, For Shepheards fayne..That from Bodyes buried in Summer season, An vnctuos vapour, hot and dry, doth rise. 1610 B. Jonson Alch. ii. iii, A humide exhalation, which we call Materia liquida, or the vnctuous water. 1635–56 Cowley Davideis iii. Note xl, Lambent fire is, A thin unctuous exhalation made out of the Spirits of Animals. 1712 Blackmore Creation iv. 173 Evening trains of unctuous vapours. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. I. 390 Falling stars, which are thought to be no more than unctuous vapours, raised from the earth to small heights. 1812 Sir H. Davy Chem. Philos. Introd. 19 Unctuous or inflammable gas. 1820 Shelley Sensit. Pl. iii. 74 Unctuous meteors from spray to spray..flitted in broad noonday Unseen. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop xviii, And an unctuous steam came floating out. |
4. Having an oily or greasy feel or appearance. Also of feel, touch, etc.
| 1668 Wilkins Real Char. 82 Being of an unctuous touch, and used for Sallets. 1804 Abernethy Surg. Obs. 44 But it is not at all unctuous to the touch. 1828 J. E. Smith Eng. Flora II. 9 Pubescence mealy, friable, and unctuous. 1863 Hawthorne Our Old Home (1879) 96 Excellently carved in oak, now black with time and unctuous with kitchen-smoke. 1876 Duhring Dis. Skin 17 To the touch the skin has a soft, smooth, somewhat unctuous feel. |
5. Characterized by spiritual unction (in later use
esp. of an assumed or superficial nature); complacently agreeable or self-satisfied:
a. Of persons.
| 1742 Cheyne in Byrom's Rem. (1857) 331, I think him..more plain,..luminous, and unctuous, than any I ever met with. 1854 Poultry Chron. I. 292/2 Bland, unctuous, and rosy as they appear, they are nevertheless excessively fastidious. 1882 J. Ashton Soc. Life Reign Q. Anne II. 138 A Quaker could not be drawn without being caricatured into an unctuous rogue. 1896 ‘Ian Maclaren’ Kate Carnegie 171 A certain class of smug, self-contented, unctuous men. |
b. Of speech, conduct, etc.
| 1822 Lamb Elia i. Chimney-Sweepers, It was a pleasure to see the sable younkers lick in the unctuous meat, with his more unctuous sayings. 1848 Dickens Dombey iv, Laying an unctuous emphasis upon the words. 1871 Morley Carlyle in Crit. Misc. Ser. i. 217 In the corrupt and unctuous forms of a mechanical religious profession. |