▪ I. fenny, a.1
(ˈfɛnɪ)
[OE. fęnniᵹ, f. fęnn fen.]
1. Of the nature of, or characterized by, fen; boggy, swampy.
| c 1000 ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 147 Uliginosus ager, fenniᵹ æcer. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. ii. 22 The fenny feeld it is not forto plowe. a 1440 Found. St. Bartholomew's 12 Right vncleene it was and as a maryce dunge and fenny with water. 1553 Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 19 They are..engendered..in fennie & marrishe groundes. 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia iv. 162 Large Fenny vnwholsome Marshes. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 406 ¶4 They journey through the fenny Moors. 1805 J. Luccock Nat. Wool 186 Almost the only animal of the kind known through the fenny district. 1858 Bushnell Nat. & Supernat. vi. (1864) 192 Muddy rivers, with their fenny shores, tenanted by hideous alligators. |
2. Inhabiting, growing, or produced in a fen. Now only of plants.
| 1543 Traheron Vigo's Chirurg. ii. ix. 42 He must abstaine also from maryshe fyshes and fennie, and drye..oystres. 1545 R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 128 A fennye goose. 1587 Harrison England ii. xxii. (1877) i. 343 Fennie bote, broome, turffe, [etc.]..will be good merchandize euen in the citie of London. 1605 Shakes. Macb. iv. i. 12 Fillet of a Fenny Snake, In the Cauldron boyle and bake. 1607 Topsell Serpents (1608) 705 Dragons..fenny, and living in the marishes. c 1629 Layton Synos Plea Ep. Ded., Fenny-Bitters in their hollowe canne make a terrible noyse. 1660 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 181 They are a fenny fowl. a 1721 Prior Solomon i. 324 In the troubl'd Stream and fenny Brake. 1818 Keats Endym. i. 80 Winding through palmy fern, and rushes fenny. 1822 Hood Lycus, Like a long silver rivulet under The long fenny grass. |
† 3. Muddy, dirty. Also fig. Obs.
| c 897 K. ælfred Gregory's Past. xiii. 74 Gif sio [hond]..bið..fenneᵹu. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 1113 Þaȝ þou be man fenny, & al to-marred in myre..Þou may schyne þurȝ schryfte. a 1340 Hampole Psalter lxxvii. 50 Vayn ianglynge þat is in fenny wittes. 1635 Quarles Embl. ii. xiv. (1718) 118 What fenny trash maintains the smoth'ring fires Of his desires! |
4. Comb., fenny-seated a., situated in a fen; † fenny-stones, a kind of Orchis.
| 1631 Weever Anc. Fun. Mon. 58 That famous fenny-seated Monastery. 1597 Gerarde Herbal i. cv. 174 Of Fennie stones. 1678 Phillips, Fenny-stones, a plant somewhat of the nature and kind of the Cynos Orchis or Dog⁓stones. 1721–1800 Bailey, Fenny-stones. |
▪ II. ˈfenny, a.2 Obs. exc. dial.
Also 1 fyniᵹ, 8 vinny.
[OE. fyniᵹ, f. fyne, fen n.2 mould. Cf. finew.]
Spoiled with damp, mouldy, musty.
| c 1000 ælfric Josh. ix. 5 Finnie hlafas. 1573 Tusser Husb. xxxv. (1878) 83 More fennie the laier the better his lust, more apt to beare hops when it crumbles like dust. 1674 Ray S. & E.C. Words 65 Fenny cheese, mouldy cheese, Kent. 1736 Lewis Thanet Gloss., Fenny, rotten, mouldy cheese ‘vinny cheese’. c 1860 Kentish dial., ‘This bread is fenny ma'am, all through lying in that damp place.’ |