† Peakish, a.2 Obs.
[f. Peak n.1 + -ish1.]
Of, pertaining to, or resembling that of the district of the Peak in Derbyshire.
In quots. 1592 and 1646 the sense may be ‘rude, outlandish, remote as in the Peak’.
| 1592 Warner Alb. Eng. viii. xlii. (1612) 201 Once hunted he, vntill the Chace, long fasting, and the heate Did house him in a peakish Graunge within a Forrest great. 1593 Drayton Sheph. Garl. iv, Her skin as soft as Lemster wooll, As white as snow on Peakish Hull, Or swanne that swims in Trent. 1600 Holland Livy xxxviii. xlix. 1015 To preuent those Thracian theeves that they should not hide themselues within their peakish holes [notis sibi latebris] and ordinarie couert musets. Ibid. xlv. xxvii. 1219 After hee had seene the mouth of that peakish caue [os specus] into which they use to descend that would haue the benefit of the Oracle. 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. xi, From thence he [Mersey] getteth Goyt down from her Peakish spring. 1646 Bp. Hall Balm Gil. xiv. iii, A plain villager in the rude Peak..returns him this answer in his peakish dialect, Nay even put fro thee, my son. |
Hence † ˈpeakishly adv., ? obscurely, ? remotely.
| 1567 Golding Ovid's Met. vi. (1593) 144 [He] led her to a pelting grange that peakishly did stand In woods for⁓growne [silvis obscura vetustis]. |