a. [f. BARM sb.2 + -Y1.]
1. Of, full of, or covered with barm; frothing.
1535. Lyndesay, Sat. Three Estates. Gud barmie aill.
1601. B. Jonson, Poetaster, V. iii. That puft-up lump of barmy froth.
c. 1817. Hogg, Tales, II. 256. Like barmy beer in corked bottles.
2. fig. Full of ferment, excitedly active, flighty.
1602. Ret. fr. Parnass., I. ii. (Arb.), 9. Such barmy heads wil alwaies be working.
a. 1605. Montgomerie, Poems (1821), 49. Hope puts that hast into ȝour heid, Quhilk boyl’s ȝour barmy brain.
1785. Burns, Wks., III. 85. Just now I’ve taen the fit o’ rhyme, My barmie noddle’s working prime.
3. Comb. barmy-brained a., flighty; barmy-froth, (fig.) a flighty, empty-headed fellow.
1599. Marston, Sco. Villanie, 166. Each odde puisne of the Lawyers Inne, Each barmy-froth, that last day did beginne To read his little.
1824. Scott, St. Ronan’s, xxxii. Cork-headed barmy-brained gowks!
