Dictionary

owly en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From owl + -y.

Meanings

1. Resembling or characteristic of an owl.
   • In the picture Miss Elizabeth showed me the croc had little piggy eyes, not huge owly ones. 2010, Tracy Chevalier, Remarkable Creatures, Dutton, published 2010, →ISBN, page 48:
2. (Atlantic-Canada) In a bad mood; cranky.
   • I had no right to be owly and disagreeable with Willie. 1988, Janette Oke, Winter Is Not Forever, Bethany House Publishers, published 2010, →ISBN, page 16:
3. Seeing poorly.
   • Perhaps nice isn't the best word for him, but he certainly was an unusually imposing and fluffy-haired and fierce-looking brute of a tarantula. He had rather an owly way about him, as if he had come out from his hole too early and was dazed and half-blinded by the light. 1908, Vernon L. Kellogg, “The Vendetta”, in Insect Stories, Henry Holt and Company, page 55:
4. (Atlantic-Canada) Silly.

Forms

Deriveds

owly-eyed · owliness · owly sulphur

Synonyms

crabby (in a bad mood) · cranky (in a bad mood) · owlish (like an owl) · ornery (in a bad mood) · owllike (like an owl) · strigine (like an owl) · grumpy (in a bad mood) · out of sorts (in a bad mood)