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atomy

5 letters·English

atomy—Resembling a tiny particle; made up of tiny particles.

Wiktionary →

/ˈætəmi/

Origin

See atom.

noun

archaicA floating mote or speck of dust.
“And thicker then in sunne are Atomies, Flew bullets, fier, and slaughtered dead mens cries.”
“That eyes, that are the frail’st and softest things Who shut their coward gates on atomies Should be call’d tyrants, butchers, murderers!”
“Thinke not that all betwixt the Wherpoole, and the Sprat, I goe about to name, that were to take in hand, The Atomy to tell, or to cast vp the sand;”
archaicAn indivisible particle.
“Lastly, it [an Element] is the least part or Atomie of that thing which is made, or proceedeth from it.”
“And freely men confesse that this world’s spent, When in the Planets, and the firmament They seeke so many new; they see that this Is crumbled out againe to his Atomies.”
“[…] praise thy God, O be not selfe-conceited, least his rod Doe bruise thee into Atomies;”
archaicA tiny being; a very small person.
“[…] she [Queen Mab] 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;”
“Was there a "delicate atomy" of minute dimensions and pale complexion, he forthwith strutted a hardy Highlander.”
““Hey!” he said, “why, it’s Tom! I suppose you have come here to laugh at me, you spiteful little atomy?””
archaicA skeleton.
“Hostess Quickly. Ay, come, you starv’d bloodhound. Doll Tearsheet. Goodman death, goodman bones! Hostess Quickly. Thou atomy, thou! Doll Tearsheet. Come, you thin thing! come, you rascal!”
“1728, John Gay, The Beggar’s Opera, Dublin: George Risk et al., Act II, Scene 1, p. 67, I could not save him from those fleaing Rascals the Surgeons; and now, poor Man, he is among the Otamys [sic] at”
“I was now thrown into a violent perturbation of spirit; for I never could behold an atomy without fear and trembling, even when I knew it was no more than a composition of dry bones;”

adj

Resembling a tiny particle; made up of tiny particles.
“[…] noble Lesser Alps which were clothed in rich velvety green all the way up and had little atomy Swiss homes perched upon grassy benches along their mist-dimmed heights.”
“1894, Richard Henry Savage, The Princess of Alaska, Chicago and New York: Rand, McNally, Book 2, Chapter 8, p. 235, […] the atomy speck, hurled through space, which we mortals call the world!”
“Things that flit in the sky or creep In the atomy dust, or swarm in the deep,”

Formsatomy(plural) · atomies(plural) · more atomy(comparative) · most atomy(superlative)

Source: Wiktionary

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