roynish

English

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “roynish”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Alternative forms

• roinish

Etymology

French rogneux, from rogne (“scab, mange, itch”).

Adjective

roynish (comparative more roynish, superlative most roynish)

1. (obsolete) Mangy; scabby.
2. Mean; paltry; troublesome.
   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], lines 629-30:

     My lord, the roynish clown, at whom so oft
     Your Grace was wont to laugh, is also missing.

   • 1980, Stephen Donaldson, The Wounded Land: The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant Book One, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

     Their voices had a roynish sound that grated on Covenant's nerves—he had too many horrid memories of urviles—but he suppressed his discomfort

Synonyms

• (scabby): reef, scald; see also Thesaurus:scabby
• (mean, paltry): contemptible, miserable, trashy; see also Thesaurus:despicable