Foxy

a. [f. FOX sb. + -Y¹.]

  1.  Fox-like; esp. crafty, cunning.

1528.  Roy, Rede me, Ded. (Arb.), 23. An hole or denne of falce foxy hipocrites.

a. 1536.  Tindale, Wks. (1573), 148. Oh foxy Pharisay, that is thy leuen, of which Christ so diligently bad vs beware.

1601.  W. Parry, Trav. Sir A. Sherley, 30. Having merrily passed the time with this foxy fryer.

1859.  Tennyson, Guinevere, 62.

  2.  Fox-colored, reddish brown or yellow.

1850.  Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XI. I. 132. There are many patches of a deep, loose, foxy soil, apparently a good, deep loam in the eyes of strangers, which is in reality very inferior.

1879.  G. MacDonald, Sir Gibbie, I. xiv. 198. Its [Donal’s face] forehead was high, with a mass of foxy hair over it, and under it two keen hazel eyes, in which the green predominated over the brown.

  b.  Painting. Marked by excessive predominance of reddish tints; over-hot in coloring.

1783.  Sir J. Reynolds, Notes on Du Fresnoy, 105. That [style] of Titian, which may be called the Golden Manner, when unskilfully managed, becomes what the Painters call Foxy; and the silver degenerates into the leaden and heavy manner.

1821.  W. M. Craig, Lectures on Drawing, etc., 128. They allowed such an excessive brownness in their shadows, as to make them sometimes perfectly foxy.

1861.  Thornbury, Turner, II. xviii. 342. In some of the England series there is a violent foxy tone, very hot and oppressive.

  3.  Used to denote various defects of color and quality resulting from atmospheric conditions, improper treatment, etc.

1805.  R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric. (1807), II. 260. When the heat in the process of couching has gone too far, the substance will be what is termed foxy.

1830.  M. Donovan, Dom. Econ., I. 351. Salt … stiffens the clammy soft dough made from new flour, and gives it a fair colour, when otherwise it would be foxy.

1846.  Young, Naut. Dict. (ed. 2), Foxey, implies ‘a defect in timber of a reddish cast or hue, arising from over-age and other causes.’ (Shipwright’s Vade Mecum.)

1877.  N. W. Linc. Gloss. (ed. 2), Turnips when they turn leathery are said to be foxy.

1883.  in Standard, 18 May, 6/5. Foxy to fine ordinary Guatemala [Coffee], at 48s.

1888.  Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., Foxy.… Specked, spotted—as with spots of mould or mildew. Also, clouded or uneven in shade of colour. They’ve a-spwoiled thick piece—he’s so foxy’s the very devil. Said of some bad dyeing.

1888.  Lockwood’s Dict. Terms Mech. Engin., Foxey, timber is said to be foxey when there is an excessive proportion of green sapwood present in it.

  4.  Of beer, wine, etc.: Turned sour in the course of fermentation, not properly fermented.

1847.  in Halliw.

1864.  in Webster.

  5.  Of grapes: Having the coarse flavor of the fox-grape.

1864.  in Webster.

  6.  Comb., as foxy-eyed, -red adjs.

1878.  Huxley, Physiography, 26–7. Its inky taste, and the foxy-red sediment which it deposits on standing, sufficiently attest the presence of iron: it is in fact a Chalybeate spring.

1880.  W. J. Florence, in Theatre (U.S.), 1 Oct., 215. Our intimacy evidently affording intense amusement to the foxy-eyed party near us.

  Hence Foxiness.

1875.  T. Laslett, Timber, viii. 47. Oak timber of the gnarled description, and having some figure in the grain, is in request for articles of furniture; and even when in a state of decay, or in its worst stage of ‘foxiness,’ the cabinet-maker prizes it for its deep-red colour, and works it up in a variety of ways.

1889.  J. Jacobs, Æsop’s Fables, I. 209. To him [early man] cunning was foxiness, magnaminity leonineity, cruelty wolfhood.