a. Forms: see THIRST sb. [OE. þurstiʓ, þyrstiʓ, f. þurst, THIRST sb. + -iʓ, -Y. Cf. OS. thurstig, OHG. durstag.]
1. Having the sensation of thirst; feeling desire or craving for drink.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. xxv. 35. Ic wæs ðyrstiʓ and ʓe saldon me dringe.
c. 1000. Ags. Ps. (Th.), lxi[i]. Wide urnon; þurstiʓe muðe.
c. 1200. Ormin, 6163. Forr þe birrþ fedenn hunngriȝ mann & þrisstiȝ ȝifenn drinnke.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1020 (Cott.). Suld he neuer thresti [F. þristy, G. thristi, Tr. fursti] be.
1426. Audelay, Poems, 7. The thorste ȝif dryng.
c. 1440. Alphabet of Tales, 460. Hym thoght in his slepe þat hym was passand thrustie.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Huon, xxii. 66. I fele my selfe nother hungry nor thrusty.
1549. Compl. Scot., v. 34. Quhen ve ar thirsty, ve seik drynk.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. x. 38. His office was the hungry for to feed, And thristy give to drinke.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Past., V. 38. The thirsty Cattel … abstain’d From Water.
1703. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus., 79. The Fountain being … very inviting to the thirsty Passenger.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 319. The thirsty one, in that he thirsts, desires only drink.
b. transf. Of earth or plants: Greatly wanting moisture; dry, parched, arid.
1388. Wyclif, Isa. xxxv. 7. That that was drie, is maad in to a poond, and the thirsti … in to wellis of watris.
1471. Ripley, Comp. Alch., III. iv., in Ashm., Theat. Chem. Brit. (1652), 140. Dry up thyne Erth tyll hyt be thrysty.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., II. (1586), 80 b. The salte, bitter, and thirstie ground.
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. LXXIV. xiv. Thou wondrously didst cause … From thirsty flynt a fountayne flow.
1743. Francis, trans. Hor., Odes, I. xxii. 16. The tawny lion reigns Fierce on his native Afric’s thirsty plains.
1878. Bosw. Smith, Carthage, 254. The country was parched and thirsty.
2. fig. Having or characterized by a vehement desire or craving; eager, greedy.
c. 888. K. Ælfred, Boeth., xii. Swa swylʓð seo ʓitsung þa dreosendan welan … forþam hio hiora simle bið þursteʓu.
c. 1400. trans. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh., 56. It semys bettir þat þe eres of þe folk be thristy to þe wordes of þe kyng.
1577. Harrison, England, II. i. (1877), I. 17. The thirstie desire of the people … to heare the word of God.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 727. When the thirsty Fire had drunk Their vital Blood.
1760. Franklin, Lett., Wks. 1840, VI. 230. She has a mind thirsty after knowledge.
1831. Lamb, Elia, Newspapers 35 Yrs. ago. Refreshing to the thirsty curiosity of the traveller.
3. transf. That causes thirst. (Now colloq.)
1599. Sandys, Europæ Spec. (1632), 152. Troubled with the dropsie … caused … or accompanied with a thirstie infirmitie.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., I. ii. 134. Our Natures doe pursue Like Rats that rauyn downe their proper Bane, A thirsty euill, and when we drinke, we die.
1812. W. Tennant, Anster F., IV. xlviii. Slices of the thirsty ham.
1897. F. T. Jane, Lordship, etc., i. 2. A thirsty walk up and down terrible bad roads.
Mod. Thirsty weather and thirsty work.
4. Comb., as thirsty-cupped, thirsty-looking, thirsty tongued adjs.; thirsty frog, thirsty snake: see quots.
1567. Maplet, Gr. Forest, 70 b. There is … fiue kindes of Aspis. The first named Dipsas in Greeke, in Latine Situla, Thristie Snake.
1802. Shaw, Gen. Zool., III. 115. Thirsty Frog, Rana Sitibunda … Native of desert places about the river Ural:… has the habit of a toad.
1869. T. C. Irwin, Mr. J. J’s Family, in Shamrock, V. 21 Jan., 278/1.
| The twilight cattle, thirsty tongued, with lashing tails, | |
| Plod to the shallow drinking-places in some leafy river’s reach. |
1875. Lanier, Poems, Symphony, 132 Marsh-plants, thirsty-cupped for rains.
Mod. A thirsty-looking man standing outside a public-house.
