Dictionary

weathery en · ADJ

Etymology

From weather + -y.

Meanings

1. Accompanied by or featuring wind and/or precipitation.
   • In weathery days, when near, I loot thee in; 1857, John Johnstone, “Nicky’s Lament”, in Poems on Various Subjects, Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, page 114:
   • 1960, Joseph Sargent Hall, Smoky Mountain Folks and their Lore, Asheville, NC: The Cataloochee Press, Great Smoky Mountains Natural History Association, Chapter 10, p. 67, Weather often means bad weather, a rain or snow storm: […] one may hear: “There’s no need of you goin’ out, it’s so weathery.”
   • “It’s just that some people said it was a weathery day. It was foggy but it wasn’t weathery. It was a calm day, Mr Dove. A calm day.” 1995, Peter Landesman, The Raven, Penguin, published 1997, page 230:
   • Between a film of weathery sky and a relatively quiet ebb tide of water near at hand like dar, dense surging waves […] 1992, William Kloss, Doreen Bolger, Art in the White House, Washington, DC: White House Historical Association, page 207:
   • The people who lived in the village saw the house high in its weathery notch on the long ridge to the north, storm clouds fisting about it, or the white cumuli bunching past on their way to somewhere else, 2000, Lynn Stegner, “The Hired Man”, in Pipers at the Gates of Dawn, Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, page 2:
2. Worn or otherwise affected by weather; (of a person's features or body) showing signs of age or wear.
   • I was going to say something about the boarded window, and the weathery paint, and how the chimney was coming apart, but Dad looked so skinny and thoughtful I decided not to. 2001, Leif Enger, Peace Like a River, London: Black Swan, published 2002, page 179:
   • It was a cluster of two-room cottages with weathery wood shingles in an oak forest, 1968, Tom Wolfe, chapter 4, in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →OCLC, page 36:
   • He turns over the rough-hewn back of his hands to show that anyone can get a callus or two on the palms but only the seasoned farmer has weathery skin on the other side. 1984, Colman McCarthy, chapter 4, in Involvements, Washington, DC: Acropolis Books, page 124:
   • […] Bill slapped with all his might and main, on his leather old weathery cheek, enough to break his jaw. 1897, Frederick C. Emberson, chapter 2, in The Yarn of the Love Sick Parsee, Montreal: W. Drysdale, page 18:
3. Subject to frequent changes (of direction or fortune, for example).
   • In so desultory and―as one intelligent street-seller with whom I conversed on the subject described it―so weathery a trade, it is difficult to arrive at exact statistics. 1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1, G. Woodfall and Son, page 304:
   • the flitting fancy of a boy and girl, who pop upon one another, and skip through zig-zag vernal ecstasy, like the weathery dalliance of gnats 1880, R. D. Blackmore, chapter 5, in Mary Anerley, volume 2, London: Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, pages 81–82:
4. Lacking in flavour as a result of the leaves having been harvested during mid-season rains. (of tea)
   • The Ningchows are tarry, burnt, mouldy or weathery. 1885 July 1, “The China Tea Trade”, in The Tropical Agriculturalist, page 48:
   • Even at high elevations, if the season is exceptionally wet, the teas are thin and uninteresting. They are called “weathery.” 1961, Lendal Kotschevar, Quantity Food Purchasing, New York: Wiley, page 322:

Forms

Relateds

weatherish

Synonyms

unpredictable · stormy · variable · windy · volatile · weathered · changeable