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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

scoury en · ADJ · etymology 1

Etymology

From a dialectal sense of scour, "rain shower", from Old Norse skúr (“shower”), + -y.

Meanings

  1. Showery, marked by intermittent rain showers and wind.
    • ... scoury sky[…] 1951, Chambers's Edinburgh Journal:
    • '... scoury (tempestuous) night.' 1900, Henrietta Keddie, Logan's loyalty, by Sarah Tytler, page 211:
    • "... scoury night," he said, as he looked up into the dark, portentous sky. 1910, One Hundred Choice Selections, page 204:

scoury en · ADJ · etymology 2

Etymology

From scour (“suffer diarrhea”) + -y.

Meanings

  1. Suffering from scouring (diarrhea).
    • ... scoury, weak, drawn up, and unpromising. I still continued to feed the cows heavily because I wanted them to grow the calves well. But I couldn't get the calves to do any good,[…] 1916, American Breeder, page 4:
    • ... scoury calves sometimes die. As with so many livestock disorders, prevention is the name of the game. At one time every calf I brought on the farm caught a wicked brand of scours. Evidently, previously purchased baby bovines had[…] 1980, The New Farm:
  2. Shabby.
    • ... scoury coat, ... 1977, Harvard University. Library, Harvard Library Bulletin:
    • ... [the] scoury-looking fellow I saw you speaking to at the bridge-end that day of our Sacrament was one of that kind of folk? 1876, James Moir Porteous, Brethren in the Keelhowes: Brethrenism Tested by the Word of God, page 171: