drumly, a. Orig. Sc.
(ˈdrʌmlɪ)
Also drumbly.
[app. nasalized var. of drubly, in same sense.]
1. Of the sky or day: Troubled; gloomy, cloudy; the opposite of clear. Also fig.
| 1513 Douglas æneis v. xii. 55 The drumblie schoure ȝet furth our all the air Als blak as pik. 1708 J. Blackader Diary 26 Sept. in Crichton Life xiv. (1824) 331 This campaign has still a strange drumly aspect. c 1817 Hogg Tales & Sk. II. 220 A glow of seriousness in his drumly looks. 1888 A. S. Wilson Lyric of a Hopeless Love xxviii. 92 Above the drumly day. |
2. Of water, etc.: Turbid; discoloured with matter in suspension; not clear.
| 1570 Buchanan Ane Admonit. Wks. (1892) 24 Gude fischeing..in drumly Watter. 1622 Bp. Abernethy Phys. for Soule xix. (1630) 293 Like a stirred and drumly water. 1713 Kennedy Ophthalmogr., It mixed with the aqueous humour, which becoming drumly, the patient could no longer see. 1853 G. Johnston Nat. Hist. E. Bord. I. 10 Its margin often miry and sedgy, its water drumly. |
b. fig. and transf.
| 1563 Winȝet Wks. (1890) II. 78 Lat the cleir fayth..of our elders be na mixing of glar..be tribulit and maid drumlye. 1790 Burns ‘Kind Sir, I've read your paper through’ 6 Or what the drumlie Dutch were doin'. 1829 Scott Jrnl. 13 Feb., I wrote for several hours..but was nervous and drumlie. |