1651 R. Child Large Let. in S. Hartlib Legacie 69 Some curious Pallates have called it Vin Greco, rich and racy Canary, not knowing what name to give it, for its excellency.

1654 E. Gayton Pleasant Notes Don Quixot iii. vi. 102 The generous oyle of Sack, nitty, roapy, and razy.

1678 J. Worlidge Vinetum Britannicum (ed. 2) 212 If ground early, then is the Cider more racy.

1695 J. Addison tr. Virgil Fourth Georgic iv, in Wks. (1721) I. 21 Luscious sweets, that..Correct the harshness of the racy juice.

1731 G. Medley tr. P. Kolb Present State Cape Good-Hope II. 80 Caprian Wine which was Six years old, and which sparkled like old Hock, and was as racy as the noblest Canary.

1745 R. Dodsley Agric. ii, in Misc. II. 138 The tasteful apple, rich with racy juice.

a1774 O. Goldsmith Surv. Exper. Philos. (1776) II. 243 The juices which are nourished in the vegetable world by the solar heat, are light, pungent, and racy.

1800 T. Moore tr. Anacreon Odes i. 12 His lip exhaled..The fragrance of the racy tide.

1828 T. De Quincey Elements Rhetoric in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Dec. 897/1 English divinity ceased to be the racy vineyard that it had been in ages of ferment and struggle.

1847 C. Brontë Jane Eyre I. iv. 62 As aromatic wine it seemed on swallowing, warm and racy.

1863 W. C. Baldwin Afr. Hunting 267 Nothing approaches the parts most relished by the natives in richness of flavour and racy, gamey taste.

1948 Life 6 Sept. 44/3 (advt.) A rich and racy cooking sauce that's tops at the table, too. Costs so little, does so much for flavor!

1994 Wine Spectator 31 Dec. 43/3 The 1991 is sleek, racy and on the dry side.

1676 J. Evelyn Philos. Disc. Earth 101 Some Plants, the most racy, and charg'd with juice..thrive..well amongst Rocks.

1671 J. Dryden Evening's Love ii. 15 A Colonie of Spaniards, or spiritual Italians, planted among us would make us much more racy.

1833 T. S. Fay Crayon Sketches II. 95 It was then composed of sparkling wit and rare invention—of characters rich and racy, yet natural.

1849 C. Brontë Shirley I. ix. 218 Yorkshire has such families here and there..peculiar, racy, vigorous; of good blood and strong brain.

1871 H. B. Stowe My Wife & I xv. 160 There was so much positive character in the little lady,—such a sort of spicy, racy individuality, that the little I had seen of her was like reading the first page of an enchanting romance.

1690 T. Shadewell Amorous Bigotte 11 'Tis difficulty makes the pleasure high and racy.

1837 E. Bulwer-Lytton Ernest Maltravers I. i. viii. 82 That twilight shower had given a racy and vigorous sweetness to the air.

1862 J. H. Burton Book-hunter (1863) 163 The active racy enjoyments of life—those enjoyments in which there is also exertion and achievement.

1904 R. H. Davis Bits of Gossip ii. 51 He wrested the secret meaning out of each life, pouncing on it, holding it up with a certain racy enjoyment in his astuteness.

1927 C. M. Rourke Trumpets of Jubilee 83 In the racy pleasures of recollection he lived again.

1945 S. O' Casey Drums Under Windows in Autobiogr. (1980) I. 520 Sean..was wiping the sweat off his steaming body after a rough and racy hurling match.

1946 D. C. Peattie Road of Naturalist (U.K. ed.) v. 53 It is another to botanize on the wing. This, if you have a trained eye and some background, is racy fun.

c1817 Gifford Let. in S. Smiles Publisher & Friends (1891) II. xxi. 47 His style is racy and vivid.

1841 I. D'Israeli Amenities Lit. II. 93 The conversations of Sir Thomas More were racy.

1863 Times 28 Dec. 7/4 The way..he liberates the other six champions..is pantomime of the best and most racy description.

1895 J. Hollingshead My Lifetime I. xxiv. 232 A rich imagination, and the power of racy narrative.

1918 W. M. Kirkland Joys of being Woman xi. 114 One missive, guiltless of grammar, is racy with backwoods wisdom.

1925 Amer. Speech 1 151 Of all the raucous tumble of words which make up the vernacular of the migratory laborer, only the most racy and irresistible seep through into the language of the lay people.

1942 F. Davis & E. K. Lindley How War Came i. 39 The racy speech of that region and that period still comes easily to Hull after thirty-five years of public service in Washington.

1954 Musical Times 92 498 Future researchers will find him to be the most brilliant writer, the most racy and entertaining, among all the musicologists of our time.

1997 Brit. Jrnl. Philos. Sci. 48 436 The style is Dennet at his most racy, unstuffy, vivid and fluent.

1901 ‘P. Bee’ Vagaries of Men 107 Women who tell racy stories..can rouse a great deal of enthusiasm in a room full of men.

1913 D. Barnes in A. Berry New York (1989) 22 Arcadia had been abruptly deserted once Reginald discovered that she used a certain cologne, which he decided was a trifle too ‘racy’.

1925 F. S. Fitzgerald Great Gatsby iii. 69 I began to like New York, the racy, adventurous feel of it at night.

1955 Times 19 Aug. 8/2 Lieutenant-Colonel R. J. T. Hills..contributes to the summer number..some racy memories of Combermere, the Household Cavalry barracks at Windsor.

1973 Nature 27 July 241/2 The introductory passages are autobiographical in content and colourful, frank and uninhibited in style—racy is the only word.

1991 Cosmopolitan (Nexis) Apr. 174 Apparently, well-garbed females have no qualms about shedding their Laura Ashleys and Donna Karans for an open-breasted patent-leather bustier or a racy red-rubber ensemble.

1675 R. Burthogge Cavsa Dei 400 There are things Good, and things Evil to this High and Racy Sense, as well as to Inferiour Ones.

1676 T. Mace Musick's Monument sig. b ii God 'twixt His Creatures, has Vast-Diff'rence made, Witness the Racey Courcer, and the Jade.

1841 ‘Wildrake’ Cracks of Day 190 The racy Mango won him the St. Leger.

1885 Cent. Mag. 31 118 The Gordon setter..should have..a narrow deep chest with racy front.

1909 Galveston (Texas) Daily News 24 June 6/1 [The colt] was the only really racy looking youngster in the bunch, his mincing step and side stepping standing out in contrast to the rather dejected appearance of the rest of the field.

1968 H. Harmer Chihuahua Guide 243 Racy, slight in build and rather longbodied.

2002 J. Cunliffe Encycl. Dog Breeds (new ed.) 41 A dog which is racy is one which is streamlined and elegant in appearance, quite the opposite of a cobby dog.