rubious

English

Etymology

From Latin rubeus, from rubere (“to be red”). See rouge.

Adjective

rubious (comparative more rubious, superlative most rubious)

1. (obsolete) red; ruddy
   • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:

     Diana's lip
     Is not more smooth and rubious; thy small pipe
     Is as the maiden's organ, shrill and sound,
     And all is semblative a woman's part.

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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.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 “rubious”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)