reeky, a.
(ˈriːkɪ)
Forms: 5, 6 Sc. reky, 6 Sc. reikie, 6–9 Sc. reekie, 7 reaky, 7– reeky.
[f. reek n.1 + -y1. See also reechy.]
1. a. That emits vapour; steamy; full of rank moisture.
| c 1400 tr. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh. 79 Waters þat spryngyn yn stony lond and ys reky Abundandly, er heuy & noyant. 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 15 A meanes..to keepe them reeky and moyst till such time as they can bee gotten peel'd. 1808 Scott Marm. v. Introd. 131 Her wavering lamp I'd rather trim..Than gaze abroad on reeky fen, And make of mists invading men. 1861 Lytton & Fane Tannhäuser 11 Their lips, Spurning the reeky pasture, yearn for draughts Of rock-rebounding rills. |
b. Emitting smoke, smoky.
| 1604 Jas. I Counterbl. to Tobacco (Arb.) 110 You must haue a reekie cole brought you..to kindle your Tobacco with. a 1849 H. Coleridge Ess. (1851) I. 276 The dens and caverns..where daylight never entered, and the reeky tapers are never extinguished. |
2. Consisting of or resembling smoke.
| 1513 Douglas æneis xi. v. 14 The hevynnis hye dyd walxin dyrk, Involuyt with the reky stewis myrk. a 1578 Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (1814) 479 He saw ane gritt mistie and reikie cloud ryse and move fordwardis till it cam aboue Dunpenderlaw. 1892 Ld. Lytton King Poppy Prol. 614 Above his sallow couch a reeky cloud Its poison-dropping canopy suspends. |
| fig. 1629 Z. Boyd Last Battell 511 All the joys which are heere, are but reekie pleasures, purchased with teares, wher with the eyes of men are made bleared. |
3. Full of smoke.
| 1576 Newton Lemnie's Complex. (1633) 226 As bright and handsome things in a reaky house that are besmeared, dusked and smoaked. 1718 Bp. Nicolson in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. IV. 318 The wretches lie in reeky sod-hovels. 1827 Carlyle in Froude Life I. 380 Thus we pass our days..far from all the uproars..of the reeky town. 1859 Jephson Brittany vi. 69 As my eyes became accustomed to the reeky atmosphere. |
b. Blackened with smoke;
† black as with smoke.
| a 1585 Polwart Flyting w. Montgomerie 539 Bot, reikie rooks and ravens, or ȝee ryue him, Desist, delay his death, whill I descriue him. 1859 R. F. Burton in Jrnl. Geog. Soc. XXIX. 46 A long upper room, with reeky rafters. |