Meaning of atomy | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A floating mote or speck of dust.
   archaic
2. A skeleton.
   archaic
3. An indivisible particle.
   archaic
4. A tiny being; a very small person.
   archaic

Examples

“And thicker then in sunne are Atomies, Flew bullets, fier, and slaughtered dead mens cries.”

“That eyes, that are the frail’st and softest things Who shut their coward gates on atomies Should be call’d tyrants, butchers, murderers!”

“Thinke not that all betwixt the Wherpoole, and the Sprat, I goe about to name, that were to take in hand, The Atomy to tell, or to cast vp the sand;”

“[…] the crew Seemed in that light, like atomies to dance Within a sunbeam;”

“1880, Richard Francis Burton, The Kasidah, London: H. S. Nichols, 1894, p. 7, The marvel is that man can smile dreaming his ghostly ghastly dream;— Better the heedless atomy that buzzes in the morning beam!”

“Lastly, it [an Element] is the least part or Atomie of that thing which is made, or proceedeth from it.”

“And freely men confesse that this world’s spent, When in the Planets, and the firmament They seeke so many new; they see that this Is crumbled out againe to his Atomies.”

“[…] praise thy God, O be not selfe-conceited, least his rod Doe bruise thee into Atomies;”

“[…] she [Queen Mab] comes In shape no bigger than an agate-stone On the fore-finger of an alderman, Drawn with a team of little atomies Athwart men’s noses as they lie asleep;”

“Was there a "delicate atomy" of minute dimensions and pale complexion, he forthwith strutted a hardy Highlander.”

““Hey!” he said, “why, it’s Tom! I suppose you have come here to laugh at me, you spiteful little atomy?””

“Hostess Quickly. Ay, come, you starv’d bloodhound. Doll Tearsheet. Goodman death, goodman bones! Hostess Quickly. Thou atomy, thou! Doll Tearsheet. Come, you thin thing! come, you rascal!”

“1728, John Gay, The Beggar’s Opera, Dublin: George Risk et al., Act II, Scene 1, p. 67, I could not save him from those fleaing Rascals the Surgeons; and now, poor Man, he is among the Otamys [sic] at Surgeon's Hall.”

“I was now thrown into a violent perturbation of spirit; for I never could behold an atomy without fear and trembling, even when I knew it was no more than a composition of dry bones;”

“[…] a bedstead with four bare atomies of posts, each terminating in a spike, as if for the dismal accommodation of lodgers who might prefer to impale themselves.”

“The veriest atomy he looked, With grimy fingers clutching and crooked, Tight skin, a nose all bony and hooked, And a shaking, sharp, suspicious way;”

CEFR level