moonshiny

comparative more moonshiny · superlative most moonshiny

1. obsoleteMoonlit; lit by moonlight.

   “Oh, the falls!—they are a thing to be looked at on a moonshiny night, by your Aunt Sarah and that gay old bachelor, Colonel Singleton; but a fellow like myself never shows surprise, unless it may be at such a touch as this.”

   1821, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 35, in The Spy

   1 more example

   When Trim, as his custom was, after he had put my uncle Toby to bed, going down one moon-shiny night to see that every thing was right at his fortifications—in the lane separated from the bowling-green with flowering shrubs and holly—he espied his Bridget.

   1759, Laurence Sterne, chapter 17, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume II

   Synonyms: moonlight

2. colloquialdatedCrazy; nonsensical; ludicrous.

   Canvassing it was like fishing for salmon: you might throw out anything in the shape of a fly, the most gaudy, the most moonshiny, the most unlife-like and unrealizable thing that could be fastened upon a hook […]

   1853, Broomhill: Or, The County Beauties, page 7