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SHADOWY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Filled with shade
Example:
cool umbrageous woodlands
Synonyms:
shadowed; shadowy; shady; umbrageous
Classified under:
Similar:
shaded (protected from heat and light with shade or shadow)
Derivation:
shadow (shade within clear boundaries)
shadowiness (relative darkness caused by light rays being intercepted by an opaque body)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Lacking in substance
Example:
a wraithlike column of smoke
Synonyms:
shadowy; wraithlike
Classified under:
Similar:
insubstantial; unreal; unsubstantial (lacking material form or substance; unreal)
Derivation:
shadow (something existing in perception only)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Lacking clarity or distinctness
Example:
a few wispy memories of childhood
Synonyms:
dim; faint; shadowy; vague; wispy
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
indistinct (not clearly defined or easy to perceive or understand)
Context examples:
Of these death-white realms I formed an idea of my own: shadowy, like all the half-comprehended notions that float dim through children's brains, but strangely impressive.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
It was a solemn place, for the walls were so gigantic and the slit of blue sky so narrow and so obscured by a double fringe of verdure, that only a dim and shadowy light penetrated to the bottom.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
They simply seemed to fade into the rays of the moonlight and pass out through the window, for I could see outside the dim, shadowy forms for a moment before they entirely faded away.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Shadowy effigies in armor stood on either side, a dead silence reigned, the lamp burned blue, and the ghostly figure ever and anon turned its face toward him, showing the glitter of awful eyes through its white veil.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
When I read to Agnes what I wrote; when I saw her listening face; moved her to smiles or tears; and heard her cordial voice so earnest on the shadowy events of that imaginative world in which I lived; I thought what a fate mine might have been—but only thought so, as I had thought after I was married to Dora, what I could have wished my wife to be.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
The dim forehead was crowned with a star; the lineaments below were seen as through the suffusion of vapour; the eyes shone dark and wild; the hair streamed shadowy, like a beamless cloud torn by storm or by electric travail.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
It was as though my memories of all Jonathan's horrid experience were befooling me; for the snow flakes and the mist began to wheel and circle round, till I could get as though a shadowy glimpse of those women that would have kissed him.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Every shadowy nook, where seats invited one to stop and rest, was a mass of bloom, every cool grotto had its marble nymph smiling from a veil of flowers and every fountain reflected crimson, white, or pale pink roses, leaning down to smile at their own beauty.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
I had some shadowy idea of endeavouring to evade the question, by replying that I thought him a very nice gentleman; but my aunt was not to be so put off, for she laid her work down in her lap, and said, folding her hands upon it: Come! Your sister Betsey Trotwood would have told me what she thought of anyone, directly.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I then sat with my doll on my knee till the fire got low, glancing round occasionally to make sure that nothing worse than myself haunted the shadowy room; and when the embers sank to a dull red, I undressed hastily, tugging at knots and strings as I best might, and sought shelter from cold and darkness in my crib.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
