1919 W. Lang Sea-lawyer's Log 29 I have seen an officer who presides directly over our naval destinies fix the eye of a basilisk upon a luckless ‘rockie’ who incautiously spoke of a parade.

1927 ‘Giraldus’ Musings Merry Matloe 186 Rocky, a Royal Naval or Fleet Reserve man. Also a R.N. Reserve officer who once was more commonly known as a ‘Cargo Shifter’.

1929 F. C. Bowen Sea Slang 112 Rockies, R.N.V.R. ratings training in H.M. ships in peace time and very highly valued as worked ratings. Before the War it was also applied to R.N.R. ratings, seldom since.

1948 E. Partridge et al. Dict. Forces' Slang 156 Rockies, officers of the Naval Reserves.

2000 R. Jolly Jackspeak (new ed.) 368 Rocky, nickname for a wartime RNVR officer.

?c1475 in J. Gairdner Sailing Direct. (1889) 21 (MED) In xiiij or xvj fadome there is rokky grounde.

a1552 J. Leland Itinerary (1710) I. 86 The Castelle of Notingham stondith on a rokky Hille as on the West side of the Towne.

1597 W. Shakespeare Richard II ii. i. 62 England.., Whose rockie shoare beates backe the enuious siege Of watry Neptune. View more context for this quotation

1614 W. Raleigh Hist. World i. v. ii. §6. 398 The Citadell called Acrocorinthus, stood vpon a steep rockie hill on the North side of the towne.

1648 Moderate Intelligencer No. 194. 1776 The question of satisfaction or non-satisfaction being looked upon as rockie, was laid aside.

1659 J. Pearson Expos. Apostles Creed iv. 449 In a Vault made by the excavation of the rocky firm part of the earth.

1710 J. Addison Tatler No. 120. ⁋2 Rocky Paths and pleasing Grotto's.

1787 G. Winter New Syst. Husbandry 347 Where the ground is free from springs, stoney or rockey.

1825 Spirit of Eng. Mag. Nov. 149/1 The steep, rocky path to immortality.

1832 H. Douglas Ess. Mil. Bridges (ed. 2) v. 235 The left bank was rocky, and nearly level with the water.

1855 J. A. Eames Another Budget xxxix. 422 We came upon a rough, rocky path, winding down to a rapid river.

1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps i. xx. 139 The Trifti glacier, embraced on all sides by the rocky arms of the Breithorn.

1919 Outing Mar. 290/3 It was a country of deep, cold lakes that we were entering, with high, rocky shores and virgin spruce crowning the heights.

1940 E. J. H. Corner Wayside Trees Malaya I. 211 The Neram is the big tree that arches over the rocky rivers in the eastern and northern states of Malaya.

1997 B. McCrea et al. S. Afr.: Rough Guide 202 You'll need sturdy walking shoes, as the terrain is rocky and steep in parts.

1599 R. Hakluyt Princ. Navigations (new ed.) II. ii. 108 One man of vs tooke thirtie goodly Congers in one day, and other rockie fishe and some Bonitos.

1640 J. Parkinson Theatrum Botanicum 707 The rockie Cranes bill [sc. Geranium saxatile] is a lesser plant then the ordinary Doves foot.

1719 tr. J. Pitton de Tournefort Compl. Herbal I. 158/1 They are succeeded by Seed like unto those of the wild Mountain Valerian, the rocky sort especially.

1731 P. Miller Gardeners Dict. I. at Lychnis Maritime Rocky Campion, with an Orpine Leaf.

1805 B. Lambert tr. F. A. Michaux Trav. Allegany Mts. 301 The remainder of this tract..produces only the white, red,..and rocky oaks, &c. intermixed with pines.

1811 T. Haynes Interesting Discov. Hort. 5 Rocky or Saxatile, and Succulent Plants, with dry and barren soils.

1878 L. Clements Shooting & Fishing Trips (ed. 2) xlvi. 380 A long belt of rocks, well furnished with weeds, holes, &c., in which congers and rocky fish are at all times to be found.

1911 St. Louis Public Libr. Monthly Bull. 9 383/2 Tells, simply for children, about..roses, annuals and seed-sowing, biennials, perennials, climbers, rocky plants.

1970 O. Konstandt & G. Farnsworth tr. E. Wendelberger Enchanted World of Alpine Flowers 44 Other types of rocky inhabitants are the Rosette plants and foremost among these are members of the numerous varieties of the Saxifrage family.

2001 Ecology 82 1743/1 Such differences in fecundity between habitats may be caused by the smaller mean plant size of rocky plants.

1835 W. Black Pract. Treat. Brewing 52 The third change is the cauliflower or curling top, rising to a fine rocky or light yeasty head.

1836 Penny Cycl. V. 405/1 The stages of a healthy fermentation are, first, a creamy scum rising on the surface: this, after a time, begins to curl and becomes frosted in appearance; it then becomes rocky, and the air vesicles which appeared frosted enlarge.

1910 Encycl. Brit. IV. 510/2 At the end of a further short period this develops into a light curly mass (cauliflower or curly head), which becomes lighter and more solid in appearance, and is then known as rocky head.

1988 Boston Globe (Nexis) 1 Dec. 14 Golden yellow and cloudy with a small but rocky head.

2001 J. J. Palmer How to Brew vi. 74 Produces a dense rocky head during fermentation.

a1619 F. Davison tr. Ps. clxii. 31 in Davison's Poet. Rhapsody (1817) III. 331 Where rocks, and rocky-hearted foes, My flight on every side enclose.

1694 T. D'Urfey Comical Hist. Don Quixote: Pt. 2nd ii. ii. 20 Is it then possible, thou Soul of Lead, thou Marble-breasted Rocky-hearted Squire, that thou shouldst boggle at such easie penance.

1791 R. Burns Let. 28 Feb. (1985) II. 73 What a rocky-hearted, perfidious Succubus was that Queen Elizabeth!

a1849 J. C. Mangan Poems (1859) 238 This rocky-bosomed beauty.

1912 R. Murray At Eternity's Shore 144 When this rocky-hearted fellow had ceased to speak, He bowed his sinful face, and stood like one so meek.

1744 J. Thomson Spring in Seasons (new ed.) 19 The Next, pursue their rocky-channel'd Maze, Down to the River.

1765 O. Goldsmith Traveller (ed. 2) 5 Though the rocky crested summits frown.

1768 A. Tucker Light of Nature Pursued II. iii. 413 The rocky-pointed causey of punishment.

1895 M. J. Savage Man ii. 25 Above the forty feet it is hollow, all rocky-walled, but a room within.

1994 P. O'Brian Commodore (1996) x. 274 Between them lay a narrow rocky-sided bay reaching away into the land, losing itself in the murk.

1615 H. Crooke Μικροκοσμογραϕια 440 Aboue the eares..aboue the bones called petrosa or the rockie bones.

1786 W. Foster Gentleman's Experienced Farrier 132 The cavities which are formed in the midst of the os petrosum, or rocky bone, are three in number.

1839 Lancet 2 Nov. 186/2 An irregularly shaped extremely hard bone, named, on that account, the rocky bone, which, in my System of Anatomy, I consider merely to be the osseous envelop of the otic bulb.

1904 C. Jones Cycle of Life 71 It is contained, on each side, within the hardest bone in the body, called, therefore, the petrous or rocky bone.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Tempest (1623) iv. i. 69 Thy Sea-marge stirrile, and rockey-hard . View more context for this quotation

1853 C. C. Felton Let. 23 Aug. in Familiar Lett. (1866) xi. 116 That heart, rocky-hard and icy-cold, from which..the fields of Switzerland, the plains of Lombardy, the vineyards of the Rhine, draw their life.

1986 Lippincott Man. Nursing Pract. (ed. 4) x. 434/2 Small, dry, rocky-hard masses.

1694 J. Strype Memorials Thomas Cranmer Appendix 7 Another Carkeyne of golde enameled with blac and white, with an owche of golde enameled white and blew: Set with a great rockey Rubye: One rocky Emerawde: One pointed Dyamant.

1728 J. Woodward Fossils All Kinds i. 29 The Rocky-Ruby,..Rubinus rupium. This is of a Red deep, and the hardest of all the kinds.

1831 F. Madden Privy Purse Expenses Princess Mary Index 263 Rubies, rocked,..More properly called rock, and sometimes rocky rubies.

1900 Black Cat July 31 Ross was just dismounting from a rocky wheel [sc. a bicycle].

1912 A. Bennett Matador of Five Towns & Other Stories 157 ‘What's up with that wheel?’ ‘It's rocky, that's what that wheel is.’

1956 W. Morris Field of Vision 207 She wore high rocky heels, and her stockings had a black line all the way up.

1960 M. Gallie Man's Desiring vi. 62 Down on his knees, he shoved the paper under the rocky table leg.

1994 E. Danticat Breath, Eyes, Memory i. iii. 22 The trip to La Nouvelle Dame Marie took five hours in a rocky van.

1967 Los Angeles Times 13 Aug. (Calendar section) 29/1 Herb Alpert's A&M record label has burgeoned from an output of middle-of-the-road best-selling music into rockier, but also best-selling, paths.

1972 M. Saunders Phonograph Rec. (Electronic ed.) Oct. In an attempt to guess what's expected of them, will they try and come up with some more rocky stuff?

1986 Washington Post 2 May 15/1 It has, after all, gotten him through almost every door there is in popular music, since his earlier, rockier days with First Edition.

2001 Computer Music May 54/3 We've also seen a trend that things are getting a bit more rocky, and mixing rock, R&B and hip-hop.