Dictionary

crocusy en · ADJ

Etymology

From crocus + -y.

Meanings

1. (rare) Resembling or characteristic of crocuses.
   • He designed a dress for her, and had it made as a studio property of his own—a sort of crocusy affair, mauve silk, slashed with purple streaks—a dancer’s skirt, rather full—and she has such pretty legs. 1917, Basil Creighton, The History of an Attraction, London: Chatto & Windus, page 171:
   • You don’t think that perhaps a big chou and ends of pale yellow chiffon—the nice spring crocusy yellow—would improve me? 1902, Eleanor Hoyt, “Gowns and a Gobolink”, in Everybody’s Magazine, volume VII, page 378, column 2:
   • Now you have come to see / Out yonder where I go, / You ’ll find your way to follow me— / There ’s the world for you to outgrow, / There ’s Power to be overcome, / There ’s more of you to be, / More of man-total sum / Of soul ere you come to me / The way I go, wholly out there / In the crocusy air— / There ’s to reach and to be / More of you yet, more of me. 1911, Frederick Fanning Ayer, “The Man Militant”, in Bell and Wing, New York, N.Y.; London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, The Knickerbocker Press, stanza IX, pages 286–287:
   • You have dressed festive altars in colored wreaths, painted them fresh with flowery threads. A golden, crocusy line goes forth, and here a purple row of violets, flushed scarlet meets milky white. 2010, Venantius Fortunatus, translated by Joseph Pucci, “To Radegund (d. 587) and/or to Agnes (d. no later than 589)”, in Poems to Friends, Indianapolis, Ind.: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., →ISBN, page 82:
   • She wore what was probably her best guesting robe, in crocusy blues and purples, and a leather belt chased with women’s chevrons. 2021, Heather Osborne, Songbroken, Stanwood, Wash.: Forest Path Books, →ISBN:
   • When you swap your winter woolies for the crocusy cottons of spring, treat your room to the same sort of seasonal freshening-up. 1959 April, “Spruce up for spring: Give your room a bright new look for the season”, in Enid A. Haupt, editor, Seventeen, Philadelphia, Pa.: Triangle Publications, Inc., page 96:
2. (rare) Featuring crocuses.
   • Spring should have begun, yesterday, in earnest but the weather hangs back this year and so far there has not been much “Spring by advance installments.” There hasn’t been a real, balmy, crocusy, johnnyjumpup, Spring day, yet, and this is the 22nd.o f^([sic]) March. 1909 March 22, The Piqua Daily Call, volume XXVI, number 135, Piqua, Oh.: The Call Publishing Co., page [2], column 2:
   • Each year Harrods has participated in the Festival of Stores and to advertise its own contribution of a Festival of Flowers another whole page in the Evening Standard proclaimed: Everything’s looking rosy, daffodilly, crocusy, forget-me-notty, snowdroppy, marigoldy, carnationy, narcissusy, hollyhocky, buttercuppy, irisy, geraniumy, chrysanthemumy, foxglovey, honeysuckly, hyacinthy, lupiny, rhododendrony, and astery at Harrods for the next eleven days. 1971, Frank Jefkins, “Part Four: Twenty-Four Case Studies”, in Advertising Today, London: Intertext Books, →ISBN, page 325:
   • I had swallowed the laudanum and was drifting into sweet untroubled dreams of rocking Swing-O-Matics, Home-and-School Association meetings, Easter egg hunts in crocusy backyards, yearly pilgrimages to Storybook Gardens, and cute guys in spandex. 1996, James Miller, “Out Family Values”, in Marion Lynn, editor, Voices: Essays on Canadian Families, Toronto, Ont.: Nelson Canada, →ISBN, part I (Diverse Family Forms), page 143:
   • On one of these walks, towards the end of the month, they sat peacefully together under a pear tree in a ‘crocusy field, perfect stillness, grey, hazy, mysterious’. 2021, Jennifer Walker, Elizabeth of the German Garden: A Literary Journey; A Biography of Elizabeth von Arnim, [Kibworth Beauchamp], Leics.: Matador, →ISBN:
   • Having reported all this, consider the significance on such a wonderful, balmy, crocusy day. Lady Bird Johnson can look out from the second-floor White House porch and visualize big beds of tulips in bloom both on the wide lawn and in every planting area in the land. 1967 January 25, Ted Lewis, “Capitol Stuff”, in Daily News, volume 48, number 183, New York, N.Y., page 4, column 4:

Forms