resty

comparative more resty · superlative most resty

1. UKregionalRestive, resistant to control.First known use 16th c.

   In vaine the Pagan bannes, and sweares, and rayles, / And backe with both his hands unto him hayles / The resty raynes […]

   1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

   3 more examples

   [N]either knovv I vvhether it is more hard to manage of the tvvo, a dejected eſtate, or a proſperous, vvhether vve may be more incommodated vvith a reſty horſe, or vvith a tyred one: […]

   1645, Jos[eph] Hall, “Sect[ion] II. The Contrariety of Estates wherein Contentation is to be Exercised.”, in The Remedy of Discontentment: Or, A Treatise of Contentation in whatsoever Condition: […], London: […] J. G. for Nath[aniel] Brooks, […], published 1652, →OCLC, pages 6–7

   I could not come a moment sooner; I hardly expected to get here at all, for my horse has been so confounded resty I could not tell how to get him along.

   1782, [Frances Burney], chapter VI, in Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress. […], volume I, London: […] T[homas] Payne and Son […], and T[homas] Cadell […], →OCLC, book I, page 83

   “Catch hold of the pack-beasts!” I shouted, as they shied back upon us, and two were caught and held fast—I know not by whom. The third, the resty one, springing backwards past me, almost on his haunches, jerked his halter wide of my clutch, and in a moment was galloping full flight down the slope.

   1910, Arthur Quiller-Couch (as “Q”), “The Copernican Convoy” in Corporal Sam and Other Stories, London: Smith, Elder, p. 57

2. UKregionalDisposed to rest; inactive, lazy.First known use 16th c.

   [A]ll [beef] is rejected and unfit for such as lead a resty life, anyways inclined to melancholy, or dry of complexion […]

   1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   […] Come; our stomachs / Will make what’s homely savoury: weariness / Can snore upon the flint, when resty sloth / Finds the down pillow hard.

   1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vi]

   [W]hat are Chaplains? In State perhaps they may be listed among the upper Servingmen of som great houshold, and be admitted to som such place, as may stile them the Sewers, or the Yeomen-Ushers of Devotion, where the Maister is too restie, or too rich to say his own prayers, or to bless his own Table.

   1649, J[ohn] Milton, chapter 24, in ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC, page 182