roilyadj.
/ˈrɔɪli/, U.S. /ˈrɔɪli/ Chiefly U.S.
Esp. of water: muddy, turbid; cloudy. Also figurative and in figurative contexts.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > dirtiness > pollution or defilement > [adjective] > full of sediment
fata1387
puddled1559
roiled1611
roil1658
scuddy1797
riley1805
roily1823
riled1830
the world > matter > liquid > [adjective] > qualities of liquid > cloudy or opaque > specific muddy or turbid
druvya1300
drublya1340
oozya1398
feculent1471
troublous1495
mudlya1500
drumlya1522
troublish?1527
puddled1559
puddly1559
suddy1587
muddy1590
droumy1605
muddled1624
turbid1626
turbidous1628
puddlish1633
muddied1642
scuddy1797
roily1823
blundered1855
jumbly1864
mudded1898
the world > matter > liquid > water > [adjective] > properties or characteristics of water > not calm, disturbed, or turbulent
roily1823
1823 J. F. Cooper Pioneers II. i. 14 For fear you [sc. maple sap] should get roily.
1880 Scribner's Monthly Aug. 484/1 If the water is very roily or brackish.
1895 Outing 26 63/1 He abruptly departed, leaving behind him a trail of roily water.
1917 Northwestern Reporter 161 705/1 As soon as fermentation takes place in a very small degree the beverage would get cloudy; it would get roily.
1928 V. L. Parrington in N. Foerster Reinterpretation Amer. Lit. vii. 156 The movement of naturalism..was cut across..by a sporadic outburst of romanticism that..yielded a roily flood of historical fiction.
1976 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 21 Apr. s8/4 Normally it is time for heavy, layered clothing when streams are high and roily.
1992 C. McCarthy All Pretty Horses (1993) i. 42 The water was the color of clay and roily and they could hear it in the rips downstream.
2003 New Yorker 24 Nov. 49/2 He also won two huge starts in the post-season..and that roily Game Three in Boston, where he stood cool amid the schoolyard punchings and pushings.
Compounds
roily oil n. originally U.S., now rare oil containing admixed water.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > mineral material > mineral oil > [noun] > containing emulsified water
roily oil1877
the world > the earth > minerals > types of mineral > hydrocarbon minerals > [noun] > oil > petroleum > types of
Gabian oil1696
green tar1737
roily oil1877
1877 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 1876–7 16 452 Have pumped in 27 days 42 barrels of roily oil.
1915 B. Redwood & A. W. Eastlake Petroleum Technologist's Pocket-bk. iv. 214 On recommencing pumping the well gave nothing but ‘roily oil’ for more than a month.
1998 Oceanologica Acta 21 624/1 Experiments involved the preparation of samples of roily oil in fresh sea water.
Derivatives
ˈroiliness n.
ΚΠ
1876 2nd Rep. State Fisheries (State of Michigan) 23 The overseer in charge kept an accurate..register of the temperature of the water, and its condition as respects roiliness and clearness.
1905 L. J. Cole in Rep. of Bureau of Fisheries 1904 (U.S.) 593 Where there are a comparatively large number of carp in a pond the water is kept in an almost constant state of roiliness.
1912 Mem. Geol. Surv. India 40 121 [The well] being shut down at first on account of the ‘roiliness’ or emulsification of the oil.
1940 Amer. Midland Naturalist 24 313 The only constant difference which I can find between sites chosen by the two species is the roiliness of the water.
1996 R. R. Stickney Aquaculture in U.S. iii. 152 Cole also discussed the increased turbidity (roiliness of the water) associated with the activities of carp.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1823