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atomy

1 American  
[at-uh-mee] / ˈæt ə mi /

noun

  • atomies
    plural
  1. an atom; mote.

  2. a small creature; pygmy.


atomy 2 American  
[at-uh-mee] / ˈæt ə mi /

noun

  • atomies
    plural
  1. a skeleton.


atomy 1 British  
/ ˈætəmɪ /

noun

  1. an atom or minute particle

  2. a minute creature

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

atomy 2 British  
/ ˈætəmɪ /

noun

  1. an obsolete word for skeleton

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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

Plase, yer honors, there's a little shrivelled atomy of a man outside, as wants to spake wid ye.

From With Clive in India Or, The Beginnings of an Empire by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

"Get to your duty," commanded the little atomy in his quavering treble.

From A Traitor's Wooing by Headon Hill

“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

The laughableness of the thing—this ferocious atomy defying him—struck home to the little man.

From Bob, Son of Battle by Alfred Ollivant

“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

Two or three of these atomies would hardly have made a square meal for a ladybird, and I should think that a starling after swallowing a thousand would fed very hungry.

From Birds in Town and Village by W. H. (William Henry) Hudson

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 Alfred Tennyson, Baron Tennyson

She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes In shape no bigger than an agate-stone On the fore-finger of an alderman, Drawn with a team of little atomies Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep.

From Familiar Quotations A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature by John Bartlett

So, at least, says Liebig, who states that he found a small piece of matchwood, just extinguished, burst out again into a flame on being immersed in the bubbles given out by these living atomies.

From Glaucus, or the Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley

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