drowsy, a.
(ˈdraʊzɪ)
Also (6 drawsy, drusye), 6–8 drousy, 7–8 drouzy, drowzy.
[Found in first half of the 16th c.; no corresponding ME. or OE. form is recorded: it is however probably related to OE. dr{uacu}sian: see drowse v.]
1. Inclined to sleep, esp. at a time when one wishes, or ought, to be awake; heavy with sleepiness; half asleep, dozing.
| 1530 Palsgr. 311/1 Drowsy, heavy for slepe or onlusty, pesant. 1591 Florio 2nd Fruites 3, N. Me think you are very drowsie still. T. I am not very well awaked yet. 1648 Gage West Ind. xvii. 113 It made mee more drowsie at night. 1725 Pope Odyss. ii. 446 Drowsy they rose, with heavy fumes opprest. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge xviii, A drowsy watchman's footsteps sounded on the pavement. 1877 M. M. Grant Sun-Maid i, I am very tired and drowsy. |
2. Caused or characterized by sleepiness or inactivity.
| a 1529 Skelton El. Rumming 15 Her lothy leere is..ugly of cheere, droupy and drowsie. 1562 Turner Herbal ii. 46 b, Pour rose oyl and vinegre vpon them that haue the drawsy or forgetfull euel. 1562 ― Baths 8 b, Diseases of the heade, as are the drusye euill. 1655 Culpepper Riverius i. ii. 9 Drouzie Diseases, called Coma, Lethargy, Carus, and Apoplexy. 1727–38 Gay Fables ii. xiii. 68 Till drousy sleep retard the glass. 1870 Dickens E. Drood i, Some..period of drowsy laughter. |
3. Inducing sleepiness; lulling; soporific.
| 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. iii. 1 [He] vprose from drowsie couch. c 1617 Middleton Witch iv. iii, I spic'd them..with a drowsy posset, They will not hear. 1706 Addison Rosamond iii. iii, The bowl, with drowsie juices fill'd. 1839–40 W. Irving Wolfert's R. (1855) 3 That potent and drowsy spell, which still prevails over the valley. |
4. fig. Heavy, dull, inactive; sluggish, lethargic.
| 1570 Levins Manip. 108 Drowsie, deses. 1584 R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. i. iii. 5 In whose drousie minds the divell hath goten a fine Seat. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. v. i. 399 The dead and drowsie fier. a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb x. §140 The drowsy, dull Presbyterian humour of Fairfax. 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 178 ¶14 A drowsy thoughtlessness or a giddy levity. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 467 Sinking into a servile, sensual, drowsy parasite. |
5. Comb., as drowsy-head, a person of a sleepy or sluggish disposition; drowsy-headed, drowsy-flighted adjs.
| 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 354 The drowsie headed lubber. 1577 tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 269 Slothfull drousiheades are..an vnprofitable lumpe of vnoccupied earth. 1634 Milton Comus 551 The drowsy-flighted steeds That draw the litter of close-curtained sleep. 1834 Moir in Blackw. Mag. XXXV. 708 The drowsyhead, man, on his bed slumbers prone. |