rubious

English

Etymology

From ruby +‎ -ous.^[1]

Adjective

rubious (comparative more rubious, superlative most rubious)

(uncommon) Ruby-colored.
- c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], page 257, column 2:
  Dianas lip
  Is not more ſmooth, and rubious: thy ſmall pipe
  Is as the maidens organ, ſhrill, and ſound,
  And all is ſemblatiue a womans part.
- [1948], “[Minds] Bernard Shaw”, in Observer Profiles (Biography Index Reprint Series), Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, published [1970], →OCLC, page 150:
  As Shaw became less of the rubious-bearded rebel and more of the Public Institution, reporter-hunted, bore-pursued, the partnership must have been hard work at times.

References

^ “rubious, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.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 “rubious”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

[1] “rubious, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

[1]