wearish

wearish

English

Etymology

Possibly from weary + -ish.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪəɹɪʃ/

Adjective

wearish (comparative more wearish, superlative most wearish)

1. (obsolete) Tasteless, having a sickly flavour; insipid.
2. (obsolete or dialectal) Sickly, wizened, feeble.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.5:

     Who was to weet a wretched wearish elfe, / With hollow eyes and rawbone cheekes forspent […].

   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, (please specify |partition=1, 2, or 3):

     , New York Review Books, 2001, p.16:

     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 […].

Derived terms

• wearishness

Anagrams

• washier