1541 T. Elyot Castel of Helthe (new ed.) 88 b Some groundes or residence [in urine] is like to meale, wheate, or barley, and may be named mealy residence.

1658 Sir T. Browne Garden of Cyrus in Hydriotaphia: Urne-buriall iii. 156 The regular spots in their [sc. butterflies'] wings seem but a mealie adhesion.

1758 A. Reid tr. P. J. Macquer Elements Theory & Pract. Chym. I. i. 35 By which means its crystals lose their transparency, become, as it were, mealy, and fall into a fine flour.

1800 Wordsworth in Wordsworth & S. T. Coleridge Lyrical Ballads II. 34 Autumn..With all its mealy clusters of ripe nuts.

1818–20 E. Thompson Cullen's Nosologia (ed. 3) 203 Small clustering pimples..after three days go away in a small mealy desquamation.

1840 J. Pereira Elem. Materia Med. II. 661 Many druggists prefer mealy sarsaparilla, that is, sarsaparilla whose cortex is brittle and powdery, and which, on being fractured transversely, throws out a white dust.

1913 J. Muir Story of my Boyhood vi. 203 Breakfast, and out to work in the mealy, frosty snow by daybreak.

1964 H. Hodges Artifacts i. 20 Equally a clay may be too aplastic to work, the material being crumbly, also known as short, mealy, lean, or open.

1992 Jrnl. Asian Stud. 51 272 Herring was boiled, pressed and dried into a mealy state, then packed into straw bales for shipment.

1547 J. Hooper Answer Detection Deuyls Sophistrye sig. X2 The prophet neuer ment..to bring a Iewishe ceremonie into the churche of the gentiles. And to inclose Christ in this Mealy sacrifice of the aulter.

1572 J. Higgins Huloets Dict. (rev. ed.) sig. Ddv^v/1 Mealy, or of meale, Farinaceus, a, um.

1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. i. iii. 102 Our mealie graine, Our skilfull Seed-man scatters not in vaine.

1667 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 2 485 A Farinaceous or Mealy Tree, serving to make bread of it.

1694 W. Salmon Pharmacopœia Bateana i. xvi. 761/1 The Meally Julep.

1732 J. Arbuthnot Pract. Rules of Diet i. 267 Decoctions of mealy Vegetables..lubricate the Intestines.

1890 New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon Mealy albumen, the albumen of seeds which contains many starch granules, as in wheat.

2005 M.-F. Samson et al. in S. P. Cauvain et al. Using Cereal Sci. & Technol. vi. 232 (caption) Fig. 5. Scanning electron micrograph of the failed surface of mealy grain.

1566 W. Adlington tr. Apuleius .XI. Bks. Golden Asse ix. f. 91^v Some were vgly and euill fauored,..And some had their faces all mealy.

1629 J. Parkinson Paradisi in Sole i. iii. 6 Lauander Cotton..is..of a whitish greene mealy colour.

1696 M. Pix Spanish Wives Prol. sig. A3 Sea-fights, 'tis thought, won't much agree with those Whom they call Wits, and less with Mealy Beaus.

1838 Dickens Oliver Twist I. xiv. 227 I only know two sorts of boys,—mealy boys, and beef-faced boys.

1860 All Year Round 28 July 367 The boys of these London schools are thin and long: white, mealy, and flaccid.

1901 R. Kipling Kim v. 114 It was only natural that the descending sun should..strike through the tree-trunks, across the grove, filling it with mealy gold light.

1942 P. Wylie Generation of Vipers xi. 197 The mealy look of men today is the result of momism.

1988 J. Brodsky To Urania 93 A sleep-crumpled cloud unfurls mealy mizzens.

1673 N. Grew Idea Phytol. Hist. iii. 115 Many Apples after Frosts eat [i.e. taste] mealy.

1725 R. Bradley Chomel's Dictionaire Œconomique Mealy; a Term used concerning certain Pears, which having generally surpassed their Ripeness, or growing in an ill Soil, have not that Quantity of Juice and fine Pulp, which they should have: Thus they say of the Lansac, Dean, &c. this Pear is mealy, this Pear has a mealy Taste.

1795 Hull Advertiser 5 Dec. 4/3 Mealy potatoe.

1851 H. Mayhew London Labour I. 173/2 Those [potatoes] of a large size [are]..selected..because they are the mealiest.

1858 ‘G. Eliot’ Janet's Repentance xi, in Scenes Clerical Life II. 213 I like my potatoes mealy.

1906 E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands vi. 66 ‘What rot, girls; why don't yer get er shift on?’ cried Feathers virtuousl... ‘'Taint ther mealy pertater, polin' on the firm like this.’

1981 M. Cunningham & J. Laber Fannie Farmer Cookbk. (1988) 409 Summer squash have..a..more watery interior, while winter squash are hard-shelled and mealier inside.

2010 S. H. Jansky in Y. H. Hui et al. Handbk. Fruit & Veg. Flavors 940 A mealy potato is dry and granular, while a waxy potato is moist and gummy.

1567 W. Painter Palace of Pleasure II. xxii. f. 160 Certesse I am of opinion that a man may vainely consume a yeare or two in pursuite and seruyce of thys mealy Countrey wenche.

1584 R. Wilson Three Ladies of London ii. sig. Aiii Enter Simplicitie lyke a Miller all mealy.

1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. i. iv. 137 The mealie Mountaines (late vnseene) Change their white garments into lustie greene.

1636 W. Sampson Vow Breaker v. sig. I3^v I may perchance harpe upon a conceit to beate this parboil'd gentlemans love out of my mealy Millers coat.

1704 N. N. tr. T. Boccalini Advts. from Parnassus I. 233 That some sort of People should be so foolish, to expect to come, as meally out of the Mill, when they had staid there but a quarter of an Hour, as the Miller himself.

a1774 R. Fergusson Poems (1785) 174 Mealy bakers, Hair-kaimers.

1832 Tennyson Miller's Daughter i, in Poems (new ed.) 33 The wealthy miller's mealy face.

1839 H. W. Longfellow Hyperion I. i. vi Winter..will come down at last in his old-fashioned mealy coat.

1883 H. W. V. Stuart Egypt 113 He emerged from the mills as white as the clown in a pantomime, nor were we less mealy.

1567 J. Maplet Greene Forest f. 34^v Britannick or English Herb, hath the very looke of the greatest Sorrell, but in Colour a little more black, somewhat Mossie or Mealie.

1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball v. ii. 547 The leaues be playne and smoth almost lyke the leaues of Orache, but not so soft, white, nor mealie.

1609 Shakespeare Troilus & Cressida iii. iii. 73 Men like butter-flies, Shew not their mealy wings but to the Summer. View more context for this quotation

1709 R. Gould Satyr against Wooing in Wks. 40 As a Moth that round the Taper plays, Now here, now there it's Mealy Wings displays.

1805 R. Heber Jrnl. 14 Sept. in A. Heber Life R. Heber (1830) I. iii. 81 Nothing was seen but rotten bog, and rocks covered with lichen, a white mealy moss, which has more the appearance of a leprosy than a pasture.

1870 J. D. Hooker Student's Flora Brit. Islands 316 Chenopodium album..more or less mealy.

1961 R. W. Butcher New Illustr. Brit. Flora I. 6 A surface..is..Mealy when the hairs are very short, intricate and white and come off the surface like meal.

1993 TLC for Plants Summer 33/3 The dusty miller primrose..has mealy green leaves (resembling, it is said, flour sprinkled on the apron of a miller).

1804 tr. P. F. Tingry Painter & Varnisher's Guide 7 The use of camphor for varnish is limited; too great a quantity would render it mealy.

a1806 J. Barry in R. N. Wornum Lect. on Painting (1848) 216 To give a richness and depth to the dark colours, by preventing that mealy appearance which results from the light resting and glittering on their surfaces.

1876 W. de W. Abney Instr. Photogr. (ed. 3) 110 The result would be ‘measly’ or mealy prints—i.e. prints in which minute red spots alternate with darker ones in the shadows after fixing.

1890 Internat. Ann. Anthonys Photogr. Bull. 86 My greatest trouble has been mealy prints.