Dictionary

wannish en · ADJ

Etymology

From Middle English wannysche, wannyssh; equivalent to wan + -ish.

Meanings

1. (poetic) Quite wan or pale.
   • The moon turns the smoke into wannish clouds of white and yellow, which slowly rise, break, and disappear. 1890, Hezekiah Butterworth, The Log Schoolhouse on the Columbia: A Tale of the Pioneers of the Great Northwest:
   • [G]arishly enough they [gas jets] glared there, transparently wannish as it were shamed, like blinking night-things surprised by the brilliance of day, they having so flared and stared for months, or years, inasmuch as they were now blazing diminished, with streaks and rays in the flame, as if by effort: […] 1901, M[atthew] P[hipps] Shiel, The Purple Cloud, New York, N.Y.: Vanguard Press, published 1930, →OCLC, page 85:
   • Morning arises stormy and pale, / No sun, but a wannish glare / In fold upon fold of hueless cloud, / And the budded peaks of the wood are bow’d /Caught and cuff’d by the gale: / I had fancied it would be fair. 1855, Alfred Tennyson, “Maud”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, part VI, stanza 1, page 24:
   • Upon her crest she wore a wannish fire / Sprinkled with stars, like Ariadne's tiar: [...] 1819, John Keats, “Lamia”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, →OCLC, part I, page 6:
   • As the various worlds looked on, the three diamond worlds reappeared, but would never gleam with the luster of Brogi’s formula again. As the time passed, they glowed softly, in a wannish white, to the puzzlement of all except Gray, who knew, somehow, that this was the color of unconscious angels. 2009, G[eorge] F[ranklin] Skipworth, “The Ruse”, in Fire and Iceland (Fables of the Carpailtin Campfire; 2), Portland, Ore.: Rosslare Press, →ISBN, page 169:
   • Sheer slanting down the sky an opal light / Pierces the snow-blur's veil of wannish gray, / In iridescent sheen, tingeing the dazzling white / With amethystine, gold or beryl ray. 1900, Leigh Gordon Giltner, The Path of Dreams:
   • No tree in all the grove but has its charms, / Though each its hue peculiar; paler ſome, / And of a wanniſh grey; […] 1785, William Cowper, “Book I. The Sofa.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, page 17:

Forms