wheyish, a.
(ˈhweɪɪʃ)
Also 6 whaish, 6–7 whayish(e.
[f. whey n. + -ish1.]
Having the nature or quality of whey; like or resembling whey in consistence, colour, or other quality; watery, thin; palish.
| 1565 T. Raynalde Byrth Mankynde 46 b, The vayne..whiche bryngeth the whayishe humour into the left kydney. 1572 Twyne Dionysius' Surv. World E viij, A wheyish Topase. 1585 Banister Tumors xxxiv. Wks. (1633) 114 A watrish or whayish and unprofitable substance. 1625 B. Jonson Staple of News ii. 2nd Intermeane, If it be fresh and sweet butter; but say it be sower and wheyish? 1683 Tryon Way to Health 150 Some River-Water will look of a wheyish whiteish Colour. a 1722 Lisle Husb. (1757) 295 A cow..lately had the yellows, and the first coming of them to be known was by her milk being wheyish. 1801 Beddoes Hygeia vi. (1802) 43 These break..and discharge the ill⁓conditioned, wheyish, and curdy matter. 1807 Jas. Hall Trav. Scot. II. 327 The liquid oozing from the roof in a few minutes seems to be formed into a wheyish substance. |
Hence ˈwheyishness, wheyish quality; also fig.
| 1637 Markham Engl. Housew. ii. (ed. 5) 107 To prevent the wheyishnesse of the Custard. 1803 Southey in Robberds Mem. W. Taylor (1843) I. 453, I have read Cowper's ‘Odyssey’..to cure my poetry of its wheyishness. |