Dictionary

wearish en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˈwɪəɹɪʃ/ (UK)

Etymology

From Middle English warssh, werisch, werische, werish, werissh, werssh, werysshe, of unknown origin; compare Modern English dialectal wairsh and Early Modern English wersh; perhaps related to Middle English wery (modern weary).

Meanings

1. (obsolete) Tasteless, having a sickly flavour; insipid.
2. (dialectal, obsolete) Sickly, wizened, feeble.
   • Democritus, as he is described by Hippocrates and Laertius, was a little wearish old man, very melancholy by nature, averse from company in his latter days, and much given to solitariness […]. , New York Review Books, 2001, p.16
   • Who was to weet a wretched wearish elfe, / With hollow eyes and rawbone cheekes forspent […]. 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

Forms

Deriveds

wearishness