1. Full of or abounding in juice; succulent.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 54. Now wesseil N. unto thi Iousy pate, Unthrift and thou to-gidre be mett.
1552. Huloet, Iuycy, or full of iuyce,… succulentus.
1620. Venner, Via Recta, vii. 113. The iuycie substance of the Pomegranet is wholsome.
1641. Milton, Animadv., i. Wks. (1851), 195. Those hydropick humours not discernable at first from a fair and juicy fleshinesse of body.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Past., VI. 80. Nor with’ring Vines their juicy Vintage yield.
1714. Gay, Trivia, II. 434. Blue plumbs and juicy pears augment his gain.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., 86. The mutton … became more tender and juicy.
b. Of weather: Rainy, wet, soaking. colloq.
1837. Haliburton, Clockm. (1862), 497. The weather … has been considerable juicy here lately.
1868. Helps, Realmah, xvii. (1876), 497. It rained incessantly … A juicy day in the country promotes meditation of the most serious kind.
1893. Outing (U.S.), XXII. 139/1. We began the juiciest ride on record. How it rained!
2. fig. Rich in wealth, fit to be ‘sucked’ (quot. 1621); of rich intellectual quality, full of interest (the opposite of ‘dry’). colloq.
1621. Sanderson, Serm. 1 Cor. vii. 24 ¶ 28. Those parcel-gallants that have … no other use of their wits, but to distil a kind of maintenance from juycy heirs and flush novices by play.
1838. Darwin, Lett. to Lyell, in Life & Lett. (1887), I. 292. You have contrived to make it quite ‘juicy,’ as we used to say as children of a good story.
1870. Lowell, Among My Bks., Ser. I. (1873), 30. His own style, juicy with proverbial phrases.
1894. Academy, 85/3. His ‘juicy’ way of teaching (if we may be pardoned for a convenient Americanism).
b. In the slang of art criticism: Having a rich coloring suggestive of a moist surface.
1897. Daily News, 24 March, 3/2. A fine bit of juicy landscape and rich colour.
1898. Mag. Art, Feb., 196. The colouring is warm, rich, and juicy; the handling very rapid.
