shadowy

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shad·ow·y

(shăd′ō-ē)

adj. shad·ow·i·er, shad·ow·i·est

a. Full of or dark with shadow: See Synonyms at dark.

b. Casting shadows: shadowy trees.

2. Lacking distinctness; faint: shadowy forms in the darkness.

3. Lacking substance; unsubstantial: "It would have been the right thing had he gone before it was too late, for then he might have been only a shadowy dream in Edna's life, instead of a consuming reality" (Kate Chopin).

a. Little known or understood; obscure or mysterious: "Beginnings are apt to be shadowy, and so it is with the first cell, born perhaps more than 3.5 billion years ago" (Jennifer Ackerman).

b. Of questionable character; shady: "[He] had a formidable, if shadowy, reputation for his undercover work" (Peter Grose).

shad′ow·i·ly adv.

shad′ow·i·ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

shadowy

(ˈʃædəʊɪ)

adj

1. full of shadows; dark; shady

2. resembling a shadow in faintness; vague

3. illusory or imaginary

4. mysterious or secretive: a shadowy underworld figure.

ˈshadowiness n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

shad•ow•y

(ˈʃæd oʊ i)

adj. -ow•i•er, -ow•i•est.

1. resembling a shadow in faintness, slightness, etc.

2. unsubstantial or illusory.

3. abounding in shade or shadows.

[1325–75]

shad′ow•i•ness, n.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Adj.	1.	shadowy - filled with shade; "the shady side of the street"; "the surface of the pond is dark and shadowed"; "we sat on rocks in a shadowy cove"; "cool umbrageous woodlands" shadowed, umbrageous, shady shaded - protected from heat and light with shade or shadow; "shaded avenues"; "o'er the shaded billows rushed the night"- Alexander Pope
	2.	shadowy - lacking clarity or distinctness; "a dim figure in the distance"; "only a faint recollection"; "shadowy figures in the gloom"; "saw a vague outline of a building through the fog"; "a few wispy memories of childhood" dim, faint, wispy, vague indistinct - not clearly defined or easy to perceive or understand; "indistinct shapes in the gloom"; "an indistinct memory"; "only indistinct notions of what to do"
	3.	shadowy - lacking in substance; "strange fancies of unreal and shadowy worlds"- W.A.Butler; "dim shadowy forms"; "a wraithlike column of smoke" wraithlike insubstantial, unsubstantial, unreal - lacking material form or substance; unreal; "as insubstantial as a dream"; "an insubstantial mirage on the horizon"

shadowy

adjective

1. dark, shaded, dim, gloomy, shady, obscure, murky, dusky, funereal, crepuscular, tenebrous, tenebrious I watched him from a shadowy corner.

2. vague, indistinct, faint, ghostly, obscure, dim, phantom, imaginary, unreal, intangible, illusory, spectral, undefined, nebulous, dreamlike, impalpable, unsubstantial, wraithlike the shadowy shape of a big barge loaded with logs

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

shadowy

adjective

1. Full of shade:

shaded, shady.

2. Not clearly perceived or perceptible:

blear, bleary, cloudy, dim, faint, foggy, fuzzy, hazy, indefinite, indistinct, misty, obscure, unclear, undistinct, vague.

Translations

ظَليل، مُعْتِمغَيْر واضِح المَعالِم

stinnývágní

skyggefuld

dunkel schattenhaft schattig

σκιώδης

sombre vague

árnyékos

óskÿr, óljósskuggsæll

incerto ombroso oscuro

skyggeaktig

belirsizgölge gibigölgelik loş

多荫的模糊的

shadowy

[ˈʃædəʊɪ] ADJ

1. (= ill-lit) → oscuro, tenebroso; (= blurred) → indistinto, vago, indefinido
a shadowy form → un bulto, una sombra

2. (= mysterious) → oscuro, misterioso
the shadowy world of espionage → el oscuro or misterioso mundo del espionaje

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

shadowy

[ˈʃædəʊi] adj

(= shadowed) [place, area] → ombragé(e)

(= indistinct) [figure, presence] → indistinct(e)

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

shadowy

adj → schattig; (= blurred) outline, form → schattenhaft, verschwommen; (= vague) thought, fear → unbestimmt, vage; a shadowy figure (lit) → eine schemenhafte Gestalt; (fig) → eine undurchsichtige Gestalt; the shadowy world of espionage → die dunkle Welt der Spionage; a shadowy existence → ein undurchsichtiges Dasein

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

shadowy

[ˈʃædəʊɪ] adj (form, figure) → indistinto/a, vago/a; (place) → pieno/a di ombre

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

shadow

(ˈʃӕdəu) noun

1. (a patch of) shade on the ground etc caused by an object blocking the light. We are in the shadow of that building.

2. (in plural with the) darkness or partial darkness caused by lack of (direct) light. The child was afraid that wild animals were lurking in the shadows at the corner of his bedroom.

3. a dark patch or area. You look tired – there are shadows under your eyes.

4. a very slight amount. There's not a shadow of doubt that he stole the money.

verb

1. to hide or darken with shadow. A broad hat shadowed her face.

2. to follow closely, especially as a detective, spy etc. We shadowed him for a week.

ˈshadowy adjective

1. full of shadows. shadowy corners.

2. dark and indistinct. A shadowy figure went past.

ˈshadowiness noun

worn to a shadow

made thin and weary through eg hard work. She was worn to a shadow after months of nursing her sick husband.

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

The shadowy being finds its voice, and speaks first.

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Ever she avoided the throng of the blessed gods and lived in a shadowy cave, and there the Son of Cronos used to lie with the rich- tressed nymph at dead of night, while white-armed Hera lay bound in sweet sleep: and neither deathless god nor mortal man knew it.

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It moved her to dreams, to thoughtfulness, to the shadowy anguish which had overcome her the midnight when she had abandoned herself to tears.

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No rays from the holy heaven come down On the long night-time of that town; But light from out the lurid sea Streams up the turrets silently - Gleams up the pinnacles far and free - Up domes - up spires - up kingly halls - Up fanes - up Babylon-like walls - Up shadowy long-forgotten bowers Of scultured ivy and stone flowers - Up many and many a marvellous shrine Whose wreathed friezes intertwine The viol, the violet, and the vine.

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"I engage with the Snark--every night after dark-- In a dreamy delirious fight: I serve it with greens in those shadowy scenes, And I use it for striking a light:

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When he buttoned the collar in front, its points served to cover the cheeks, chin and mouth were buried in its depths, and a close scrutiny revealed only shadowy eyes and a little less shadowy nose.

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They had sported in the gladsome sunshine of the present, and so had forgotten the shadowy region of the past, in the midst of which stood Grandfather's chair.

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In the presence of George Willard, Wing Bid- dlebaum, who for twenty years had been the town mystery, lost something of his timidity, and his shadowy personality, submerged in a sea of doubts, came forth to look at the world.

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This image, so nearly identical with the living Pearl, seemed to communicate somewhat of its own shadowy and intangible quality to the child herself.

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The Loggia showed as the triple entrance of a cave, wherein many a deity, shadowy, but immortal, looking forth upon the arrivals and departures of mankind.

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As instance: dim shapes and shadowy forms would sometimes appear to him out of the night, and as they flitted spectrally past he would hear, as in a dream, the hunting cries of the pack; and, as his pulse quickened, his own hunting instinct would rouse until his controlled soft-howling in the song broke into eager whinings.

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I could see that there were pictures on the grim, brown walls, but the subjects represented were invisible in the obscure and shadowy light.