SHADOWY

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does shadowy mean? 

• SHADOWY (adjective)
  The adjective SHADOWY has 3 senses:

1. filled with shade

2. lacking clarity or distinctness

3. lacking in substance

  Familiarity information: SHADOWY used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SHADOWY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Filled with shade

Synonyms:

shadowed; shadowy; shady; umbrageous

Context example:

cool umbrageous woodlands

Similar:

shaded (protected from heat and light with shade or shadow)

Derivation:

shadow (shade within clear boundaries)

shadowiness (relative darkness caused by light rays being intercepted by an opaque body)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Lacking clarity or distinctness

Synonyms:

dim; faint; shadowy; vague; wispy

Context example:

a few wispy memories of childhood

Similar:

indistinct (not clearly defined or easy to perceive or understand)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Lacking in substance

Synonyms:

shadowy; wraithlike

Context example:

a wraithlike column of smoke

Similar:

insubstantial; unreal; unsubstantial (lacking material form or substance; unreal)

Derivation:

shadow (something existing in perception only)

 Context examples 

Beth ate no more, but crept away to sit in her shadowy corner and brood over the delight to come, till the others were ready.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

There was no shadowy picture of his footsteps, in the garden that I dreamed of walking in all night.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Some sort of shadowy pall seems to be coming over our happiness.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

In the gloom of the trees there seemed a constant menace and as we looked up into their shadowy foliage vague terrors crept into one's heart.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The house of thought was closed, its windows boarded up, and he was its shadowy caretaker.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I did not like to walk at this hour alone with Mr. Rochester in the shadowy orchard; but I could not find a reason to allege for leaving him.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

This freezing, shadowy world could have a temperature of –170 ℃, making it inhospitable for life as we know it.

(Super-Earth Discovered Around Barnard's Star, ESO)

Everything which had been disconnected before began at once to assume its true place, and I had a shadowy presentiment of the whole sequence of events.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There was the dust-cloud rolling up the hill in front of us, and through it we had a shadowy peep of the backs of our opponents, with a flash of brass-work and a gleam of scarlet.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But, as time wore on, this shadowy prospect faded, and departed from me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)