a. [f. QUALM sb.3 + -ISH1.]
1. Of persons: Affected with a qualm or qualms; tending, or liable, to be so affected.
1548. Udall, Erasm. Par. Luke, Pref. 3. Our soule is qualmishe ouer this meate.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., V. i. 22. I am qualmish at the smell of Leeke.
1670. Dryden, Tyran. Love, IV. i. Qualmish and loathing all you had before: Yet with a sickly Appetite to more.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand., lxix. My dear angel has been qualmish of late.
1816. Scott, Fam. Lett., 25 Dec. (1894), I. xii. 388. The … dog arrived … a little lean and qualmish however after his sea voyage.
1860. Motley, Netherl. (1868), I. viii. 521. Elizabeth was not desirous of peace … she was qualmish at the very suggestion.
2. Of feelings, etc.: Of the nature of a qualm.
1798. Sporting Mag., XII. 195. I began to feel some very qualmish symptoms.
1860. T. Martin, Horace, 217. Our qualmish sickness drown In Caecuban divine!
3. Of things: Apt to produce qualms. rare.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, VI. i. It is like a qualmish liqueur in the midst of a bottle of wine.
Hence Qualmishly adv.; Qualmishness.
a. 1650. May, Satir. Puppy (1657), 105. She would be as leacherous as the Mountaine-Goate, had not Natures qualmishnesse proved a strong contradiction to her desire.
1844. Alb. Smith, Adv. Mr. Ledbury, ii. (1886), 8. On approaching the Foreland the first sensations of qualmishness became apparent.
1845. W. Cory, Lett. & Jrnls. (1897), 32. Thinking about it keenly and qualmishly.
