mealy
/ˈmiːli/ adjective, noun, proper noun
Forms mealier mealiest mealies Mealys
- adjective Resembling meal (the foodstuff). “Below the hole the mice made in the woodwork was a pile of mealy sawdust.”
- adjective Of the pale yellow color of a canary.
- noun A canary of a pale yellow color.
- proper noun A surname from Irish.
Synonyms
Etymology
From meal + -y. Cognate with German mehlig.
Variant of Malley.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Having the qualities of meal; resembling meal; soft, dry, and friable; easily reduced to a condition resembling meal; as, a mealy potato.
- adjective Overspread with something that resembles meal; as, the mealy wings of an insect. Shak. Mealy bug (Zoöl.), a scale insect (Coccus adonidum, and related species), covered with a white powderlike substance. It is a common pest in hothouses.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “mealy”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details