atomy
1 Americannoun
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an atom; mote.
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a small creature; pygmy.
noun
noun
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an atom or minute particle
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a minute creature
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of atomy1
1585–95; singular use of Latin atomī, plural of atomus atom
Origin of atomy2
1590–1600; variant of anatomy (taken as an atomy )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The Wait felt so strange that he took the furry atomy without protest, and popped it into his mouth without any feelings that it was going to be nasty.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
“Yer mither wull be proud o’ ye the nicht,” said the Incubus on the atomy, “when it’s tell’t her that ye hae whanged at an auld machine, and frichtet twa leddies to the skirlin’!
From Tales from "Blackwood," Volume 2 by Various
I sometimes think scorn of us as a nation that we so gladly and peaceably put our necks beneath the sceptre of such an atomy.
From The Lost Treasure of Trevlyn A Story of the Days of the Gunpowder Plot by Everett-Green, Evelyn
The poor little atomy used to carry a poniard in the breast-pocket of his black coat—as if anybody would ever have thought of attacking his small carcass!
From Wilfrid Cumbermede by MacDonald, George
"There's Mrs. Baxter will make more fuss over her dried-up atomy of a man in one day, than Mrs. Fordham does about her fine figure of a husband in a year."
From Jessamine A Novel by Harland, Marion
“Epicurus maintains that everything we see, we see because a fine film of atomies is constantly shed by all matter, a sort of mist of particles which strikes the eye.”
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
Then, as the telescope's miracle drew Infinite Heaven's vast worlds into view, So doth the microscope's marvel display Infinite atomies, wondrous as they!
From My Life as an Author by Tupper, Martin Farquhar
The surgeons are atomies and pettifoggers, who kill more than they cure.
From Character Writings of the 17th Century by Various
But the layer of live atomies on it is not an inch thick, probably not a tenth of an inch.
From Madam How and Lady Why by Kingsley, Charles
From the outer day, Betwixt the closest ivies came a broad And solid beam of isolated light, Crowded with driving atomies, and fell Slanting upon that picture, from prime youth Well-known, well-loved.
From The Suppressed Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson by Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
