Dictionary

dewy en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˈduː.i/
• (US) audio
• /ˈdjuː.i/
• (US) audio
• /ˈd͡ʒuː.i/

Etymology

From Middle English dewy, deuhy, from Old English dēawiġ, from Proto-West Germanic *dauwag, *dauwīg, equivalent to dew + -y.

Meanings

1. Covered by dew.
   • His mildly vivid dewy beam Of beryl to diffuse: the gleam With elf-light tiniest figures lit Of shapely moon-fair elves who sit Each on a gemmy blade's curled tip In circle. 1863, Roden Noel, Behind the Veil: And Other Poems, London: Macmillan and Co., page 149:
   • The dewy grass was too slick for football.
2. Having the quality of bearing droplets of water.
   • At midnight, in the month of June, / I stand beneath the mystic moon. / An opiate vapor, dewy, dim, / Exhales from out her golden rim 1831, Edgar Allan Poe, The Sleeper:
   • In the dewy fog, it was cold and damp.
3. Resembling or characteristic of dew.
4. Fresh and innocent.
   • It was unusually early for him; his whole person exhaled the charm of almost dewy freshness; […] 1906 January–October, Joseph Conrad, chapter II, in The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale (Collection of British Authors; 3995), copyright edition, London: Bernhard Tauchnitz, published 1907, →OCLC, page 13:
   • 1814, 16 March, Percy Bysshe Shelley letter to Hogg, Thy Gentle Face Thy dewy looks sink in my breast Thy gentle words stir poison there;
   • Simplicity in life, simplicity in art, and a dewy freshness over all. 2009, Bernfried Nugel, Jerome Meckier, Aldous Huxley Annual, →ISBN, page 23:

Forms

Deriveds

undewy · dewiness · dewy-eyed · dewily

Synonyms

rory · dewy · rory · roscid · bedewed · bedewed · roric · rorid

Translations (15)

de taufeucht (covered by dew) · bg оросен (covered by dew) · pl zroszony (covered by dew) · cs orosený (covered by dew) · pl pokryty rosą (covered by dew) · nl dauwig (covered by dew) · be пакры́ты расо́й (covered by dew) · de betaut (covered by dew) · nl bedauwd (covered by dew) · la rōridus (covered by dew) · pl mokry (bearing droplets of water) · be рася́ны́ (covered by dew) · cs svěží (fresh) · be ро́сны (covered by dew) · bg росен (covered by dew)