† ˈflatuous, a. Obs.
Also 7 flateous.
[ad. F. flatueux, as if ad. L. *flātuōs-us, f. L. flātus a blowing: see -ous.]
1. Of a windy nature; full of wind or gas; = flatulent 1.
| 1580 G. Harvey Three Proper Lett. 12 Such feverous..and flatuous spirits as lurke within. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 704 Like as in our bodies there..arise certeine flatuous tumors. 1653 Gauden Hierasp. 44 Their flatuous and unrefined Wines. 1710 Death of T. Whigg ii. 45 Whose Blood being flatuous and foul. |
2. a. Resulting from inflation. b. Resembling wind in its action.
| 1658 Sir T. Browne Gard. Cyrus iii. 134 Seeds, wherein at first may be discerned a flatuous distension of the husk. 1662 J. Chandler Van Helmont's Oriat. 78 It hath well pleased the Eternall, to place in the Stars, a flatuous, violent, motive force. |
3. = flatulent 3.
| 1601 Holland Pliny II. 170 If a man eat them [mulberries] alone..they swell in the stomack and be very flatuous. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Rom. Quest. (1892) 64 So it is that pulse be flateous and windy. 1676 T. Glover in Phil. Trans. XI. 634 They use no correctives to take away the flatuous, nauseous, and other bad qualities of them. |
4. = flatulent 4.
| 1600 W. Vaughan Directions for Health (1633) 55 The morphew, or else some flatuous windy humour. 1694 Westmacott Script. Herb. 20 The plaster seldom fails in cold flatuous pains. 1710 T. Fuller Pharm. Extemp. 118 It [i.e. the Electuary] is a notable experimented thing against..flatuous Stitches in the Side. |
5. fig. = flatulent 5.
| 1630 May Lucan Contn. i. 353 But swift as thoughts can flie..in a moment goe The flatuous dreames through th' aire. 1653 A. Wilson Jas. I, 291 Willing to be less than the least in the Times flatuous opinion. 1720 J. Johnson Canons Ch. Eng. Advt. to Reader §7 They were drawn in a very flatuous Style, and contain but very little Sense in many Lines. |
Hence † ˈflatuousness.
| 1600 Surflet Countrie Farme vi. xxii. 797 Such [wines]..ingender a masse of many crudities, and much flatuousnes. 1620 Venner Via Recta vii. 113 In Feuers (by reason of their heat and flateousnes) they are not to be admitted. 1647 Ward Simp. Cobler 87, I can impute it to nothing, but to the flatuousnesse of our diet. |