▪ I. bleary, a.
(ˈblɪərɪ)
[f. blear a. (or ? n.) + -y1. In the 14th c. quot. all MSS. save one read blered, -id, -yd: so that blery is of slight authority; but cf. bleariness.]
a. More or less blear of the eyes.
| 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. vii. 198 He was bytelbrowed and baberlupped · with two blery eyen. 1655 Francion 24 The glutinous quality of that blearie humour. 1770 Armstrong Imitat. (1859) 82 He with bleary eye Blazons his own disgrace. 1810 Tannahill Poems (1846) 117 The comers were cheery, the gangers were blearie. 1830 Blackw. Mag. XXVII. 436 His little red bleary eyes. |
b. Comb., as bleary-eyed a., = blear-eyed a. 1.
| 1927 New Republic 9 Mar. 71. 1930 ‘Sapper’ Finger of Fate 261 An unshaven, bleary-eyed man. 1957 R. Campbell Portugal 33 The weirdest lot of bleary-eyed thugs. |
▪ II. bleary, n. rare—1.
(ˈblɪərɪ)
(See quot.)
| 1812 J. Henry Camp. agst. Quebec 65 Boiling a bleary, which was no other than flour and water. |