verdurous, a.
(ˈvɜːdjʊərəs)
Also 7–9 poet. verd'rous.
[f. verdure + -ous.]
1. Of vegetation: Rich or abounding in verdure; flourishing thick and green.
| 1604 Drayton Moyses ii. 51 The loathsome Hemlock as the verdurous Rose, These filthy Locusts equally deuowre. 1612 ― Poly-olb. xv. 196 The sent-full Camomill, the verdurous Costmary. 1708 J. Philips Cyder i. 35 Where the lowing Herd Chews verd'rous Pasture. c 1750 Shenstone Economy i. 129 Lovely as when th' Hesperian fruitage smil'd Amid the verd'rous grove! 1812 Cary Dante, Purg. xxix. 89 Four animals, each crown'd with verdurous leaf. 1835 J. P. Kennedy Horse Shoe R. xii, The rich, verdurous and lively forest that encompassed this blighted spot. 1837 Howitt Rur. Life ii. i. (1862) 89 Green fields and verdurous trees or deep woodlands lying all round. 1885 Athenæum 23 May 669/1 Verdurous masses of foliage and sward disposed with great simplicity and breadth. |
| fig. and transf. 1857 Willmott Pleas. Lit. xxiii. 148 Of these, Philosophy is one of the most verdurous and throws the broadest shadow. 1876 Blackie Songs Relig. & Life 197 With banners of gold and of silver,..And verdurous power in his path When he comes in the pride of the May. |
b. Of places, etc.: Covered or clothed with verdure; displaying a rich (green) vegetation.
| 1717 E. Fenton Poems 93 There the Flocks And Herds of Phœbus o'er the verd'rous Lawn Browze fatt'ning pasture. 1772 Sir W. Jones Seven Fount. Poems (1777) 37 Green hillocks,..And verdurous plains with winding streams bedew'd. 1796 Coleridge To Chas. Lloyd 51 That verdurous hill with many a resting-place. c 1818 Keats Ep. J. H. Reynolds 58 The verd'rous bosoms of those isles. 1856 R. A. Vaughan Mystics (1860) II. 80 Spots like those in the lowlands of Northern Germany, verdurous and seemingly solid. 1892 Mrs. H. Ward David Grieve II. 302 A playing wind sprang up,..freshening the verdurous ways through which they passed. |
2. Consisting or composed of verdure.
| 1667 Milton P.L. iv. 143 Yet higher then thir tops The verdurous wall of Paradise up sprung. 1772 Nugent tr. Hist. Fr. Gerund I. 533 Why did not the Earth protend her verdurous offerings. 1817 Shelley Rev. Islam vi. xxvii, Clasping its gray rents with a verdurous woof, A hanging dome of leaves. 1818 Keats Endym. iii. 420 Just when the light of morn..Stole through its verdurous matting of fresh trees. 1860 Motley Netherl. (1868) I. v. 259 The soldiers themselves, attired in verdurous garments of foliage and flower-work,..paraded the bridge. |
3. Of or pertaining to, characteristic of, verdure.
| 1820 Keats Ode to Nightingale iv, Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways. 1851 Meredith London by Lamplight xxiv, This night of deep solemnity, And verdurous serenity. 1859 Neale Disciples at Emmaus in Seatonian P. (1864) 187 Every tinted leaf Opes its young channel to the verdurous sap. 1883 Harper's Mag. July 166/1 Its verdurous hue is more noticeable than its elevation. |
Hence
ˈverdurousness.
| 1856 Lynch Lett. to Scattered (1872) 557 Many of them [sc. sermons] have an invigorating verdurousness, and are like the wide green fields. |