rheumy
Americanadjective
adjective
-
of the nature of rheum
-
literary damp and unhealthy
the rheumy air
Other Word Forms
- rheumily adverb
- rheuminess noun
Etymology
Origin of rheumy
Explanation
If something's rheumy, it's moist and watery. Your dog may look spry and healthy, but his gray snout and rheumy eyes give away his age. This adjective almost always describes the damp eyes of a person or animal. If a character in a book is described as "wizened and stooped, with rheumy eyes," you can be sure they're an elderly person. Someone whose eyes water due to illness can be described this way too: "It was tragic to see all of those coughing children with rheumy eyes." Rheumy comes from rheum, "mucus," and its Greek root rheuma, "that which flows."
Vocabulary lists containing rheumy
Circe
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The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
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City of the Plague God
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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.
But that bright hot gleam in your rheumy eyes is not the end of our universe, my friend.
From Seattle Times • Dec. 28, 2022
Ask shepherd Ramazan Agalday how long his family has lived in the ancient city of Hasankeyf in southeastern Turkey, and his rheumy eyes cloud over.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 3, 2019
When Roland Gladwell confronts him about retirement, the tiny professor’s “eyes were bloodshot, rheumy, set deep in his face like matching fires in two ancient caves.”
From The New Yorker • Aug. 9, 2018
The bishop, an elderly man with rheumy eyes, sat at the head of a modest conference table, hosting a small gathering.
From New York Times • Nov. 29, 2017
Warren watched her, open admiration in his rheumy eyes.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
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.
