a. [f. WILLOW sb. + -Y1.]
1. Bordered, shaded or clad with willows.
1766. [Anstey], Bath Guide, 121. Where the languid old Cam rolls his willowy flood.
1769. Gray, Install. Ode, 29. Where willowy Camus lingers with delight.
1816. Shelley, Lett., Pr. Wks. 1888, I. 339. The willowy plain of the Rhone.
1833. Tennyson, Lady of Shalott, IV. vii. The willowy hills and fields among.
1840. Louisa S. Costello, Summer amongst Bocages, II. 97. If, in fact, we had been sitting on a willowy ait, such as our own beautiful Thames presents, the scene would have been quite perfect.
2. Resembling a willow in its flexible or drooping gracefulness.
1791. Wolcot (P. Pindar), Rights of Kings, IV. ii. Wks. 1816, II. 188. Unceasing bends the willowy neck to ground.
a. 1835. Mrs. Hemans, Shepherd-Poet of the Alps, 165. A fragile form, With a willowy droop.
1864. G. A. Lawrence, Maurice Dering, II. 32. He, who always raved about willowy waists.
1883. Howells, Register, ii. Slender, willowy party, with a lot of blonde hair.
3. Suggesting the sound of willows agitated by the wind.
1895. Meredith, Amazing Marr., ix. The willowy swish of silken dresses.
4. Comb.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Miner’s Right, xliv. Certain delicate-featured willowy-figured Sydney demoiselles.
