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downy

adj
/ˈdaʊni/

Etymology

From down + -y.

  1. derived from *dʰewh₂-✻
  2. derived from *dūnom✻
  3. derived from *dʰewh₂-✻ — “smoke, haze, dust”
  4. inherited from *dūnaz✻
  5. inherited from *dūnā✻ — “sandhill, dune”
  6. inherited from dūn
  7. inherited from doune
  8. formed as downy — “down + -y”

Definitions

  1. Having down, covered with a soft fuzzy coating as of small feathers or hair.

    • The chick's downy coat of feathers formed almost immediately to keep it warm.

  2. Sharp-witted, perceptive.

    • The right hon. Gentleman has much more claim to the adjective downy than I have, but he really cannot catch me with that one.
    • I’m not clever, p’raps: but I am rather downy; and partial friends say I know what’s o’clock tolerably well.

  3. Low-spirited

    Low-spirited; down in the mouth.

  4. ›+ 2 more definitions

    1. A blanket filled with down

      A blanket filled with down; a duvet.

      • Went to bed with 2 downies on the bed, but the heat finally kicked in and ended with one cover and my feet sticking out.

    2. A bed.

      • to do the downy (i.e. lie in bed)

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for downy. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA