roscid

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin roscidus, from ros, roris (“dew”).

Adjective

roscid (comparative more roscid, superlative most roscid)

1. Containing or consisting of dew; dewy.
   • 1627, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum: Or, A Natural History, century 7; republished in The Works of Lord Bacon, volume 1, London: William Ball, 1837, page 156:

     The differences of earths and the trial of them, are worthy to be diligently inquired […] It is thought by some, that the ends of low rainbows fall more upon one kind of earth than upon another; as it may well be; for that that earth is most roscid: and therefore it is commended for a sign of good earth.

   • 1646, Henry More, Democritus Platonissans‎^[1], verse 100, page 26:

     For all the while her purged ashes rest / These rellicks dry suck in the heavenly dew, / And roscid Manna rains upon her breast, / And fills with sacred milk sweet fresh and new, / Where all take life and doth the world renew;

   • 1683, Sir Thomas Browne, Observation on Several Plants Mentioned in Scripture‎^[2]; republished as “Tract 1”, in Samuel Johnson, Simon Wilkin, editors, The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, volume 3, 1852, page 163:

     But in that expression, “the lilies drop forth myrrh,” neither proper lilies nor proper myrrh can be apprehended, the one not proceeding from the other, but may be received in a metaphorical sense: and in some latitude may be made out from the roscid and honey drops observable in the flowers of martagon, and inverted flowered lilies, and, 'tis like, is the standing sweet dew on the white eyes of the crown imperial, now common among us.

Synonyms

• bedewed, rorid; see also Thesaurus:bedewed

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “roscid”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)