| 释义 |
clammy, a.|ˈklæmɪ|
Also 5 claymy, 6–7 clammye, (7 clamy).
[Form-history obscure: first found as claymy 1398–1495, clammy c 1425, dates which agree with the first appearance of clam a.1 and v.1, with which it is now associated in sense. It may have been thence formed with suffix -y: cf. sticky, clingy. But it is also possible that an earlier *clámiᵹ, from OE. clám, mud, sticky clay, cloam, was shortened to clammy (cf. silly, sorry, hallow), and then associated with clam a. and v. Further evidence is wanted.]
1. gen. Soft, moist, and sticky; viscous, tenacious, adhesive.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vi. i. (1495) 186 The fyrste chyldhode wythout teeth is yet ful tender and nesshe and qwauy and claymy. 1528Paynel Salerne Regim. O iij b, An yele is a slymye fyshe, clammy, and specialy a stopper. 1551Turner Herbal i. (1568) A vj b, It hath blewe floures, the hole herbe is clammy, and hath a stronge sauoure. 1570Levins Manip. 101 Clammye, tenax, viscosus. a1793G. White Selborne (1853) II. lii. 300 The web was of a very clammy quality. 1865Lubbock Preh. Times xiii. (1878) 475 A soft substance, rather clammy and sweet.
b. Of bread: Doughy. Of soil, earth: Moist and unctuous.
1530Palsgr. 307/2 Clammy as breed is, nat through baken, pasteux. 1555Fardle Facions i. ii. 33 The earth at that tyme beyng but clammie and softe. 1560Whitehorne Ord. Souldiours (1588) 45 b, This redde earth is the fattest, and the clammiest of all the rest. 1655Moufet & Bennet Health's Improv. (1746) 340 The oven..not too hot at the first, lest the outside be burnt and the inside clamy. 1872Baker Nile Tribut. viii. 131, I followed the herd..through deep clammy ground and high grass.
c. Of liquids: Viscid.
1540Elyot Image Gov. 72 Great abundance of superfluouse humours, thicke and clammie. 1650Fuller Pisgah ii. xiii. 270 No vessels sailing thereon [Dead Sea], the clammy water being a real Remora to obstruct their passage. 1720Gay Poet. Wks. (1745) II. 78 Where the long table floats with clammy beer. 1830Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 128 Trees.. yielding a clammy juice.
d. Of vapour, perspiration, mist, etc.: Damp, and as it were clinging to the skin.
1635Swan Spec. M. v. §2 (1643) 91 Clammie Exhalations are scattered abroad in the aire. 1697Bp. Patrick Comm. Ex. x. 21 ‘Thick darkness’..made, I suppose, by such clammy Fogs that they sensibly affected the Egyptians. a1703Pomfret Poet. Wks. (1833) 91 When to the margin of the grave we come..Our face is moistened with a clammy sweat. 1872Black Adv. Phaeton xxv. 346 Stifling in the clammy atmosphere of Soho.
e. Of the skin, etc.: Suffused with sticky damp, e.g. in the death-sweat.
c1425Cookery Bks. (1888) 25 Ȝif þin hond waxe clammy. 1626T. H. Caussin's Holy Crt. 38 His hands are globes made round, there is nothing rugged, clammy, or bowed. 1795Southey Joan of Arc vi. 448 The cold sweat stands Upon his clammy limbs. a1839Praed Poems (1864) I. 203 The sign of the Cross on his clammy brow.
†2. fig. Sluggish, lagging (like a clammy slug).
a1613Overbury A Wife (1638) 99 His dull eye, and lowring head, and a certain clammy benummed pace. |