a. and sb. [ad. L. umbrātil-is keeping in the shade, private, retired, etc., f. umbra UMBRA1. So It. umbratile, ombratile, Pg. umbratil, F. ombratile, † umbratile.]
A. adj. 1. † a. Spent within doors. Obs.–1
1592. Bacon, Confer. Pleasure (1870), 24. A health … that hath not ben softened by an vmbratill life still vnder the rooffe.
b. Carried on in retirement or seclusion; not public or practical.
1640. Bp. Reynolds, Passions, xxxix. 511. The same speech may be excellent in an umbratile Exercitation, which would be too pedanticall, and smelling of the Lampe in a matter of serious and weighty debate.
1840. British Critic, XXVIII. 370. Christianity … was not once that umbratile thing, that feeble exotic, shut up in churches, parsonages and parlours.
1845. M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), 3. A time of peace and security tends to foster an umbratile and academic science.
c. Staying or living in the shade or within-doors; recluse, retiring.
1850. Tait’s Mag., XVII. 431/2. Umbratile spectators may inquire what ought to be done.
1888. Doughty, Arabia Deserta, II. 29. The third brother … was an umbratile young man, and very fanatical.
1898. L. Johnson, in Post Liminium (1911), 207. Octavius the ‘umbratile,’ quiet man was content with a miniature immortality.
2. Of, belonging to, or resembling a shadow or shadows.
1632. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, III. iii. Shadows have their figure, motion, And their umbratil action, from the real Posture and motion of the body’s act.
b. Of a shadowy nature; unsubstantial; unreal. Now rare or Obs. (Common in 17th c.)
1647. H. More, Song of Soul, Notes, 337. But this life that we live disjoyned from God is but a shadow, and umbratil imitation of that. Ibid., 433. A kind of an umbratil vitalitie that the soul imparts to the body in the enlivening of it.
1656. Jeanes, Fuln. Christ, 131. Body is opposed unto shadowes; and so a bodily inhabitation unto an umbratile.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 854. As themselves are juniors,… so are their effects … but slight, ludicrous and umbratil.
a. 1706. Evelyn, Hist. Relig. (1850), I. p. xxvii. All we have of precious and worthy our solicitude in this umbratile and transitory passage.
1806. Knox, Corr. (1834), I. 290. As far as thought could proceed, without feeling,… the umbratile, without the real apprehension,—few men could outdo him.
† c. Serving as a token or type. Obs.–1
1663. J. Spencer, Prodigies (1665), 199. The honor of being received at least as the umbratile Sign and Coming of the Son of Man.
3. Giving shade; shady.
1659. Gayton, Art Longevity, 79. Under a Sycamore Which with umbratile leaves will let no Sun Hurt your Silk-gown.
1866. Blackmore, Cradock Nowell, lxiii. (1883), 439. His hat was umbratile, as of the Pilgrim Fathers.
† 4. Of color: Shaded, dark. Obs.–1
1678. Phil. Trans., XII. 949. Appearing sometimes of a more flourishing colour tending to Carnation; and sometimes more umbratile.
B. sb. One who spends his time in the shade.
1888. Doughty, Arabia Deserta, I. 248. Many thus are umbratiles in the booths, and give themselves almost to a perpetual slumber.
