OriginVariant of restiff.
- British, regionalRestive, resistant to control.
“In vaine the Pagan bannes, and sweares, and rayles, / And backe with both his hands unto him hayles / The resty raynes […]”
“[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: […]”
“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.”
- British, regionalDisposed to rest; inactive, lazy.
“[…] Come; our stomachs / Will make what’s homely savoury: weariness / Can snore upon the flint, when resty sloth / Finds the down pillow hard.”
“[A]ll [beef] is rejected and unfit for such as lead a resty life, anyways inclined to melancholy, or dry of complexion […]”
“[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 Dev”
Formsmore resty(comparative) · most resty(superlative)