▪ I. woody, a.
(ˈwʊdɪ)
Forms: 4 wodi, 4, 6 woddy, 6 woddye, wood(d)ye, 6–7 woddie, wood(d)ie, 6–8 wooddy, 6– woody.
[f. wood n.1 + -y1.]
I. 1. Covered or overgrown with wood; having a growth of trees or shrubs; full of or abounding in woods or forests; wooded.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce iv. 492 In a woddy glen. 1382 Wyclif Num. xiii. 20 The erthe, fat, or bareyn, wodi, or with outen trees. 1545 Brinklow Compl. iv. (1874) 17 Such heathy, woddy, and moory ground, as is vnfruteful for corne or pasture. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. x. 33 Whence as he to those woodie hils did flie. a 1672 Wood Life (O.H.S.) II. 134 The said mannour was in antient time, when 'twas wooddy, a stall or den for wild boares. 1788 Gibbon Decl. & F. xlii. IV. 250 A small woody island. 1796 [see woodiness 2]. 1835 Thirlwall Greece viii. I. 305 The woody mountain tracts. 1842 Howitt Rur. & Dom. Life Germany 251 As we approached, the hills..became wilder and woodier. 1867 Morris Jason xvii. 7 The rose-hung lanes of woody Kent. |
¶ b. Bushy.
| 1609 Bible (Douay) 2 Kings xvii. 10 They made them statues..under everie thicke woddie tree [Vulg. omne lignum nemorosum]. |
† 2. Belonging to, inhabiting, or growing in woods or woodland; sylvan. Obs.
| 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. vi. 18 The wooddy Nymphes, faire Hamadryades. 1599 T. M[oufet] Silkwormes 14 The heards of woody outlawes fell. 1610 G. Fletcher Christ's Vict. Earth vii, A grassie hillock..With woodie primroses befreckeled. 1655 J. S. Bonarelli's Filli di Sciro i. v. 20 Some woody Deity. |
b. Of, pertaining to, or situated in a wood.
| a 1721 Prior Colin's Mistakes i, To Wimpole's woody Shade his Way he sped. 1809 Coleridge Three Graves 495 Deep in a woody dell. a 1840 J. Baillie Verses Kirtled Spring 17 The woody nook where bells of brighter blue Have clothed the ground. 1911 Mrs. H. Ward Case of Richard Meynell xiv. 288 As they neared the end of the woody path, he looked up again. |
II. † 3. Made of wood, wooden. Obs. rare.
| a 1540 Barnes Images Wks. (1573) 346/1 Stony & wooddy Images. 1563 Mirr. Mag., Hastings xx, In pryson pent, whose woddye walles to passe Of no less peryll than the dying was. |
4. Of the nature of or consisting of wood; of or belonging to the wood as a constituent part of the plant; ligneous.
| 1597 Gerarde Herbal i. xvi. §2. 17 Salt Marsh Spike grasse hath a wooddie tough thicke roote. a 1704 Locke Elem. Nat. Philos. ix. (1754) 33 Herbs are those plants, whose stalks are soft, and have nothing woody in them. 1776 Withering Bot. Arrangem. 804 Shrubby, somewhat woody, as the stems of the Rose. 1846 Zoologist IV. 1282 The small roots of rose-bushes..sometimes produce rounded, warty, and woody knobs, inhabited by..gall-insects. 1859 Dawson in Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc. XV. 630 Leaves..strengthened by nerves..composed of scalariform and woody tissue. 1908 Animal Managem. 87 Fibrous and woody elements..exist in varying proportions in all vegetable foods. |
b. Of a plant: Of which wood is a constituent part; forming wood; having the stem and branches of wood; woody plant, a tree or shrub, as distinguished from a herb; spec. in distinctive names of particular species, as woody nightshade.
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens iii. lvii. 398 Some Herboristes of Fraunce do cal it Solanum lignosum, that is to say, Wooddy Nightshade. 1796 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) II. 48 Hardly to be called herbaceous; it is rather hard and wooddy. 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 99 The most northern woody plant..known is a kind of Willow, Salix arctica. 1883 Longm. Mag. July 307 Cinquefoil, grown woodier..from its..upland situation. |
c. Resembling wood; having the texture or consistence of wood.
| 1791 W. Bartram Carolina 468 The fruit is a large, round, dry, woody apple..with dry woody cuneiform seed. 1840 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. III. 68/2 The coal is..rendered tougher, or, in the language of the colliers, more ‘woody’. 1871 Yng. Gentleman's Mag. Mar. 132 An immense woody shell as large as a baby's head..hanging on one of the lower branches of the very tree on which I was sitting. |
5. Pertaining to or characteristic of wood; resembling that of wood; having some quality (e.g. the smell) of wood.
| 1830 J. G. Strutt Sylva Brit. 46 A piece of oak,..which,..exposed to the sun and rains for a century,..yet smells woody. 1860 W. White Wrekin xi. 100 Apples... Their substance is as hard as their flavour is woody and sour. 1876 Morris æneis xii. 782 The gripping woody bite [of an arrow]. 1900 ‘H. S. Merriman’ Isle of Unrest ix, Clean woody odours. |
b. Having a dull sound like that of wood when struck.
| 1875 R. H. R. Rambles in Istria 50 A good campanile..with two sweetly toned bells—why is it that ours are always so unmusical and woody? 1877 M. Laffan Hon. Miss Ferrard I. vii. 241 A little cottage piano, woody and dull of tone. |
▪ II. woody, n. slang (orig. Surfing). Chiefly U.S.
(ˈwʊdɪ)
Also woodie.
[f. wood n.1 + -y6.]
An estate car with timber-framed sides.
| 1961 Surfer Q. Winter 34 (caption) A ‘woodie’ piled high. Photographer Larry Stephens..challenges anyone to produce a picture of a surf car with more boards than his. 1969 Surf Internat. (Austral.) I. xi. 13 Nat and Paul push the woodie, it's stoked too, an' finally blows its gasket. 1973 J. Marks Mick Jagger 87 Ramada Inn, the Yucca Hotel, Holiday Inn and the Seven Seas Hyatt Lodge—all in a row—saluting Dominique and the horde of military foundlings who plunge along Hotel Circle in borrowed woodies—those immaculate 1954 jobs by Ford: sturdy station wagons, armoured in wood. 1980 L. Birnbach et al. Official Preppy Handbk. 18/1 The other children were quite happy with their little red wagons; she would accept nothing but a woody. |
▸ slang. An erection of the penis. Cf. wood n.1 Additions.
| 1990Re: Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX Driving Impressions in rec.autos (Usenet newsgroup) 26 June I've got a woody already. 1993 Gaz. (Montreal) (Nexis) 23 Sept. d7 When Hatcher's voice came in just right.., Cowsill swears ‘the hair on the right side of my head stood up. I mean, I got a woody.’ 1998 J. Holms Bad Vibes xiv. 173 ‘A rather attractive lady, didn't you think?’..‘Gave you a woody, did she?’ 2000 N. DeMille Lion's Game xlvi. 531 It's sort of like having a great sex dream and waking up realizing you still had a woody. |
▪ III. woody
variant of widdy.