phlegmish

comparative more phlegmish · superlative most phlegmish

1. Laden with phlegm, as a cough.

   This was plainly apparent with solo piano recordings; it seemed as if a layer of phlegmish tubercular congestion had been removed from between the strings.

   2001, Stereophile, volume 24, numbers 7-12, page 123

   1 more example

   His front legs doubled under him, and he lay down, his nose in his own water, biting the phlegmish froth and dust around his mouth and gaping like a stuffed animal in a taxidermist's window.

   1976, Edward Dahlberg, Bottom Dogs, From Flushing to Calvary, Those who Perish, and Hitherto Unpublished and Uncollected Works

   Synonyms: phlegmy

2. Characterized by the humor phlegm; apathetic or composed.

   His concern soothed her and she breathed heavily, densely, with a thick phlegmish pity for herself.

   1966, The American Writer and the Great Depression, page 292

   3 more examples

   I was raised among them, though I fled their phlegmish company decades ago to join the chattering classes.

   2002, Briton Hadden, Henry Robinson Luce, Time, volume 160, page 72

   […]'the Lady Pusillanimous' is a mild echo of his invective against his first wife Pamela Lane whom he was just splitting up from: 'That bitch, that pusillanimous, sycophantic, snivelling, phlegmish yokel, that cow — fortunately I've ceased to care what happens to her' — which didn't stop him sleeping with her now and then after he had remarried, nor from supporting her financially

   2006, The Spectator, volume 301, page 33

   The example (for the third kind) when the (principal proposition) is separative is: 'Either this fever is either yellowish or scarlet, or this fever is either phlegmish or melancholic'.

   2012, Nabil Shehaby, The Propositional Logic of Avicenna: A Translation from al-Shifāʾ: al-Qiyās, translation of original by Avicenna

   Synonyms: phlegmatic