1. Of the sky, night, etc.: Full of stars, spangled or lit up with stars.
The phrases starry heaven, sphere, etc., were formerly used spec. = the ‘sphere’ of the fixed stars.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., II. met. ii. (Camb. MS.) (1886), 24. As many rychesses as ther shynyn bryhte sterres in heuene on the sterry nyhtes.
c. 1403. Lydg., Temple of Glas, 1100. Nou blisful goddes, doun fro þi sterri sete, Vs to fortune, caste ȝour stremes shene.
1551. Recorde, Cast. Knowl. (1556), 7. The Firmament … hath in it an infinite numbre of starres, wherof it is called the Starrye skie.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., III. ii. 356. The starrie Welkin couer thou anon With drooping fogge.
1617. Moryson, Itin., I. 208. Many times we lay in the field under the starry canopy.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 992. The Starrie Cope Of Heav’n.
1684. Contempl. St. Man, II. i. (1699), 137. The only thickness of the starry Sphere is said to contain as much as the whole space betwixt that and the Earth.
1709. Addison, Tatler, No. 119, ¶ 2. While you are admiring the Sky in a Starry Night.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 417. The starry heaven which we behold.
fig. 1657. J. Watts, Scribe, Pharisee, etc. III. 51. Those starry times of the Apostles, and those Sunshining dayes of Christ Jesus.
1864. Swinburne, Atalanta, 1077. Shall they … like flowers Be shed and shine before the startiest hours…?
2. Of or relating to the stars; consisting of stars.
1594. Barnfield, Affect. Sheph., II. ix. By the bright glimmering of the Starrie light.
1645. W. Lilly (title), The Starry Messenger.
1651. Davenant, Gondibert, III. vi. 31. Night had put all her Starry Jewels on.
1700. Moxon, Math. Dict. (ed. 2), s.v. Solar, The Sidereal or Starry year, is the space wherein the Sun comes back to any particular fixed Star.
1805. Herschel, in Phil. Trans., XCV. 58. I saw the asteroid, which in its true starry form has left the place where I saw it Sept. 29th.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, III. vi. The bright moon with her starry court.
1878. Newcomb, Pop. Astron., IV. ii. 461. The starry system.
b. Relating to, or caused by, the ‘influence’ of the stars.
1831. Lytton, Godolphin, xxvii. We must do our best to contradict the starry evils by our own internal philosophy.
c. applied to an astronomer. nonce-use.
1818. Byron, Ch. Har., IV. liv. The starry Galileo.
3. Shining like a star or like stars, bright as a star, star-like.
1608. D. T[uvill], Ess. Pol. & Mor., 101. Captivated by the powerfull attraction of their [sc. women’s] starry looks.
c. 1630. Milton, Passion, 18. His starry front low-rooft beneath the skies.
1636. Shirley, Duke’s Mistr., IV. i. (1638), H 1 b. Bright in thy sorrowes, on whom every teare Sits like a wealthy Diamond, and inherits A Starry lustre from the eye that shed it.
1667. Milton, P. L., VII. 446. And th’other whose gay Traine Adorns him, colour’d with the Florid hue Of Rainbows and Starrie Eyes.
1757. Gray, Bard, 112. Sublime their starry fronts they rear.
1866. Lytton, Lost Tales of Miletus, Oread’s Son, xvi. 96. The fountain stirred, And from it rose a mist of starry spray.
1867. Augusta Wilson, Vashti, xxv. There was a dangerous, starry sparkle in her eyes.
fig. c. 1610. Women Saints, 103. This starrie gemme shall ere long be taken from vs into the Saints contrie.
1840. Browning, Sordello, I. 282. Rather, test qualities to heart’s content; Summon them, thrice selected, near and far; Compress the starriest into one star.
1862. Swinburne, Sonn. to J. Nichol, 13. The starry spirit of Dobell.
4. Shaped like the conventional figure of a star with rays projecting from a center; arranged in the form of a star; in Bot. = STELLATE.
1606. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. II. Magnif., 662. The starry-flowers.
1629. Parkinson, Paradisus, 131. The early blew starry Iacinth.
1755. J. Ellis, Corallines, Introd. 12. Till the Polypes had extended themselves out of their starry Cells.
1781. Cowper, Charity, 552. Guns, halberts, swords, and pistols, great and small, In starry forms dispos’d upon the wall.
1794. Kirwan, Min. (ed. 2), I. 88. The striæ … diverging as from a common center, or starry.
1873. Livingstone, in W. G. Blaikie, Life, xxii. (1881), 440. Grasses with white starry seed-vessels.
5. Sprinkled or studded with star-like forms. Chiefly Nat. Hist.
† Starry coral, stone = STAR-STONE 2.
1611. Cotgr., Raye estelée, the starrie Skate, the rugged Ray.
1653. R. Sanders, Physiogn., 56. If [this line of the Head] be starry towards the plain of Mars.
1661. Boyle, Cert. Physiol. Ess. (1669), 56. Eminent Chymists … have often failed in their endeavours to make the Starry Regulus of Mars and Antimony.
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 87. Astroites or starry-stones, such as in bulk are irregular, but adorned all over with many stars.
1681. Grew, Musæum, I. § ii. iii. 45. Stellio, or the Starry-Lizard.
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, IV. 177. The Astroites, or Starry-Stone, as well that sort with the Prominent, as that with the Concave Stars.
1712. J. Morton, Nat. Hist. Northamptonsh., 183. Some Sorts of Starry Coral.
1781. Latham, Gen. Synop. Birds, I. I. 79. Starry Falcon … marked with spots resembling stars.
1835. Jenyns, Man. Brit. Vertebr., 517. Raia radiata, Don. (Starry Ray).
1861. All Year Round, 1 June, 237/2. I fell asleep, to dream of green spring meadows starry with primroses.
1884. Goode, Nat. Hist. Aquat. Anim., 184. The Starry Flounder, Pleuronectes stellatus.
1884. Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 465. Stellula, Starry Hummers.
6. Comb.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. iv. 201. His azure wings, and Starry-golden tail.
1633. Johnson, Gerarde’s Herbal, II. xcvi. (1636), 417. Starry headed small Water Plantaine.
1652. Gaule, Magastrom., 66. The night … not cloudy, but starry-bright.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., s.v. Thistle, The Calcitrapa, or starry-headed Thistle.
1814. Sir W. Herschel, Sci. Papers (1912), II. 526. Starry-nebulous patches.
