shewey

English

Etymology

From shew +‎ -ey.

Adjective

shewey

1. Obsolete form of showy.
   • 1797, [Joseph] Addison, “The Humble Friend. A Moral Tale.”, in Interesting Anecdotes, Memoirs, Allegories, Essays, and Poetical Fragments, Tending to Amuse the Fancy, and Inculcate Morality, London: […] the Author, page 244:

     She was a very ſhewey, good-looking woman: ſhe had been, probably, reckoned handſome in the days of her youth: they certainly, by the effort ſhe made to ſet off her face and figure to the greateſt advantage, thoroughly convinced the moſt careleſs ſpectator formarum, that ſhe had not given up, in her own mind, all pretenſions to admiration.

   • 1817 (date written), Jane Austen, chapter 12, in R[aymond] W[ilson] Chambers, editor, Fragment of a Novel Written by Jane Austen, January–March 1817 […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, published 1925, →OCLC, pages 169–170:

     They were shewn into the usual sitting room, well-proportioned & well-furnished;—tho’ it saw Furniture rather originally good & extremely well kept, than new or shewey—[…]

   • a. 1839, Peter Irving, Peter Irving’s Journals, New York, N.Y.: The New York Public Library, published 1943, page 50:

     One simple but very shewey method of exhibiting bonfires or illuminations was practiced. These consisted of barrels of straw or shavings which were arrayed round a square — as the Piazza Colonna &c — and when these were set on fire, the staves confined the material & retained the flame — so as to render it more permanent than I should have expected.

   • a. 1855, Mary Thale, quoting Francis Place, “Editor’s Introduction”, in The Autobiography of Francis Place (1771-1854), Cambridge: At the University Press, published 1972, →ISBN, section 2, page xviii:

     I saw the servants of the Duke of Northumberland in their shewey dress liveries, throwing lumps of bread and cheese among the dense crowd of vagabonds they had collected together . . .