Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Twisted; curled; spiral.
  • Surrounded or decked with a wreath or with something resembling a wreath.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Wreathed; twisted; curled; spiral; also, full of wreaths.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Wreathed; twisted; curled; spiral.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

wreath +‎ -y

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word wreathy.

Examples

  • She nodded and gave him her fingers and the most fetching and wreathy of smiles, and he, eager to the point of folly, added: “Oh, so do I.”

    An American Tragedy 2004

  • And howl about the hills, and shake the wreathy spear

    The AEneid Virgil 2002

  • And howl about the hills, and shake the wreathy spear.

    The Aeneid English 70 BC-19 BC Virgil

  • Namely using hickory smoke not delivered from furnace pipes but welling up, up, in beautiful wreathy spirals, to reach row on row of hams and flitches -- and to be told, by a kind person who did not know she already knew, that their curing was patterned on the old English model -- curing in the smoke of great-throated stone hall chimneys.

    Dishes & Beverages of the Old South Martha McCulloch-Williams

  • Art and literature, and wisdom and wit, adorning with a wreathy and garlandy splendour all that is noblest in mind and purest in heart!

    The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 14, No. 399, Supplementary Number Various

  • And howl about the hills, and shake the wreathy spear

    The Fourth Book of the Aeneis Vergil 1909

  • There sped the Susquehanna, lightly draped in a mantle of mist, which was gradually disappearing in wreathy, rose-tinted columns, as the sun shone out from above the hills.

    A Run by Rail from Washington to St. Louis 1862

  • Beneath him seethed and boiled the tumultuous billows, their wreathy tops torn from them, and shot, in long vanishing sheets of spray, over the distracted wilderness.

    Adela Cathcart, Volume 3 George MacDonald 1864

  • But, happily, as we and the day advanced, more wreathy lines of smoke indicated the approach of others of the fleet; and oh, good fortune! by 11 a.m. we had weathered the cape and were hove to off Hatteras Bar, waiting for the little black tug-boat that was steaming out to pilot us in.

    The Civil War in America 1862

  • Look at those hollyhocks, like pyramids of roses; those garlands of the convolvulus major of all colours, hanging around that tall pole, like the wreathy hop-bine; those magnificent dusky cloves, breathing of the Spice Islands; those flaunting double dahlias; those splendid scarlet geraniums, and those fierce and warlike flowers the tiger-lilies.

    Our Village Mary Russell Mitford 1821

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.