"slimy" - Word of the Day from the OED

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slimy, a.

SECOND EDITION 1989

(slam)  Forms: 4-6, 8 slymy (6 sleymy), 6-7 slymie; 6 slimye, 6-7 slimie, 6- slimy. [f. SLIME n. + -Y. Cf. MDu. slimich (Du. slijmig), MHG. slîmich (LG. and NFris. slîmig, older Da. slimig), MHG. slîmic (G. schleimig).] 

    1. Of the nature or consistency of slime; viscous.

1398 TREVISA Barth. De P.R. VI. xxi. (Bodl. MS.), Slymy water and glewye..staunche rennyng of blood. 1477 NORTON Ordin. Alch. v. in Ashm. (1652) 65 A Calcedonie in Slymy substance. 1539 ELYOT Cast. Helthe (1541) 92 The poulse called Lenticula, and they that are slymy like malowes. 1562 W. BULLEIN Bulwarke, Bk. Compounds 9b, This doen, presse forthe the slymie sappe of them. 1650 BULWER Anthropomet. 238 They annoint themselves with a certain slimie oyntment. 1697 DRYDEN Virg. Georg. III. 441 From their Groins they shed A slimy Juice. 1735 SOMERVILLE Chase IV. 370 Th' insinuating Eel, that hides his Head Beneath the slimy Mud. 1774 GOLDSM. Nat. Hist. (1776) VII. 25 That slimy substance with which it is so copiously furnished. 1844 MRS. BROWNING Vis. Poets lviii, His foot slips in their slimy oil. 1871 T. R. JONES Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4) 460 It is concealed by a brownish slimy secretion.

    b. techn. Of ore: In the form of slime.

1778 PRYCE Min. Cornub. 227 Moving the slimy Tin to and fro with a light hand.

    2. Characterized by the presence of slime; covered with slime.

1377 LANGL. P. Pl. B. v. 392 anne come sleuthe al bislabered with two slymy eien. 1551 TURNER Herbal (1568) 7 The hole herbe is very sleymy and full of slepery iuice. 1604 E. G[RIMSTONE] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies VII. xxvii. 582 The fire..was of the wood of fat and slimy firre-trees. 1664 POWER Exp. Philos. I. 36 In this slimy Animal..are very many rare and excellent Observables. 1798 COLERIDGE Anc. Mar. II. x, Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs Upon the slimy sea. 1845 DARWIN Voy. Nat. xi. (1879) 239 The stem is round, slimy, and smooth. 1885 BUCHANAN Annan Water iii, Down the broken walls clung slimy weeds and mosses.

    b. esp. Of rivers, shores, etc.

1398 TREVISA Barth. De P.R. XIII. v. (Bodl. MS.), [The Nile is] troublye, ery, slymy, and wosie. c1586 C'TESS PEMBROKE Ps. LXXVIII. xx, That rich land, where over Nilus trailes Of his wett robe the slymy seedy train. 1599 NASHE Lenten Stuff Wks. (Grosart) V. 211 The Saxons..that had giuen vp the ghost, in those slymie plashie fieldes of Gorlstone. 1613 PURCHAS Pilgrimage (1614) 493 A pit of standing water..wherein euery morning they wash themselues, although it be greene, slimie, and stinking. 1650 VENNER Via Recta 98 In slimy and muddy rivers. 1818 SHELLEY Prometh. Unb. IV. 311 On the slimy shores, And weed-overgrown continents of earth. 1839 F. A. KEMBLE Resid. Georgia (1863) 18 A slimy, poisonous-looking swamp. 1873 G. C. DAVIES Mount. & Mere xv. 123 The black slimy sides of the ditch.

    3. transf. and fig. Morally defiled or objectionable; vile, disgusting.

1575 tr. Luther's Galat. iii. 1 The slimy Body and the Remnants of Sin remain still in us. 1597 MIDDLETON Wisd. Solomon xv. 7 If thou want'st slime, behold thy slimy faults. 1602 2nd Pt. Ret. fr. Parnass. I. vi. 482 What slimie bold presumtious groome is he? 1693 DRYDEN, etc. Juvenal xiv (1697) 347 The rest are all by bad Example led, And in their Father's slimy Track they tread. 1796 COLERIDGE Destiny of Nations 432 The locust-fiends that crawled And glittered in Corruption's slimy track. 1898 G. B. SHAW Plays II. Man of Destiny 165 I'll spoil his beauty, the slimy little liar!

    4. Comb., as slimy-born, -coated.

1687 DRYDEN Hind. & P. I. 311 A slimy-born and sun-begotten Tribe. 1833 Ridgemon. Farm Rep. 139 in Husb. III (L.U.K.), These slimy-coated insects are all abroad in the night.

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