atomy

noun

1. A tiny particle; an atom, a mote, a speck.

   “Thou tellſt me there is murder in mine eye, / 'Tis pretty ſure, and very probable, / That eyes, that are the frailſt and ſofteſt things, / VVho ſhut their covvard gates on atomyes, / Should be called tyrants, butchers, murtherers.”

   “[…] Hunger. It was prevalent everywhere. […] Hunger was shred into atomies in every farthing porringer of husky chips of potato, fried with some reluctant drops of oil.”

2. A tiny particle; an atom, a mote, a speck.

   “[T]hicker then in ſunne are Atomies, / Flew bullets, fier, and ſlaughtered dead mens cries.”

   “Atomie. A mote flying in the ſunne.”

   “[T]he crew / Seemed in that light, like atomies to dance / Within a sunbeam;— […]”

   “Betwixt the close-set ivies came a broad / And solid beam of isolated light, / Crowded with driving atomies, and fell / Slanting upon that picture, from prime youth / Well-known well-loved.”

   “The marvel is that man can smile dreaming his ghostly ghastly dream;— / Better the heedless atomy that buzzes in the morning beam!”

3. (archaic)A tiny particle; an atom, a mote, a speck.

   “Spayne then enamour'd with the Romane trull, / Calls all her forces, more then Atomies, / And tells Ill-fortunes ſtorie to the full; […]”

   “It is as eaſie to count Atomies as to reſolue the propoſitions of a Louer: […]”

   “atomie, […] a thing ſo ſmall that it cannot bée deuided.”

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

   “And freely men confeſſe that this vvorld's ſpent, / VVhen in the Planets, and the firmament / They ſeeke ſo many nevv; they ſee that this / Is crumbled out againe to his Atomies. / 'Tis all in peeces, all coherence gone; […]”

4. (dialectal, figuratively)A very small being; a mite.

   “O then I ſee Queene Mab hath bin vvith you: She is the Fairies mid-vvife, and ſhe comes in ſhape no bigger thẽ [then; i.e., than] an Agot ſtone, on the forefinger of an Alderman, dravvne vvith a teeme of little ottamie, ouer mens 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?"”

   “But why waste time fighting atomies who do not come up to your belly-button, Ben?”

5. (archaic)A skeleton.

   “Poor Brother Tom had an Accident this time Tvvelve-month, and ſo clever a made Fellovv he vvas, that I could not ſave him from thoſe fleaing Raſcals the Surgeons; and novv, poor Man, he is among the Otamys at Surgeon's Hall.”

   “From this cavern (vvhen heaven ſhall be pleaſed to diſcover them) my bones, together vvith thoſe of my honeſt friend Dapple, vvill be taken up ſmooth, and vvhite, and bare as an atomy; […]”

   “I vvas novv throvvn into a violent perturbation of ſpirit; for I never could behold an atomy vvithout fear and trembling, even vvhen I knevv it vvas no more than a compoſition of dry bones; but the conceit of being in preſence of an atomy informed vvith ſpirit, that is, animated by a ghoſt or goblin, increaſed my terrors exceedingly.”

   “He had coloured his sides, so that they looked just like an atomy, ribs and all; for Chingachgook had a great notion in such things: so that, what with his bold, fiery countenance, his knife, and his tomahawk, I have never seed a fiercer warrior on the ground.”

   “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; […]”

6. (UK, dialectal, figuratively)A person who is very emaciated or thin; a skeleton.

   “Hoſt[ess, i.e., Mistress Quickly]. I [aye] come, you ſtarude blood-hound. / VVhoore [Doll Tearsheet]. Goodman death, goodman bones. / Hoſt. Thou Atomy, thou. / VVhoore. Come you thinne thing, come you raſcall.”

   “VVhy, my Lord, ſhe vvas handſome in her Timne; but ſhe cannot eat her Cake, and have her Cake: I hear ſhe's grovvn a mere Otomy.”

7. (figuratively, obsolete)Chiefly in the works of the English author Charles Dickens (1812–1870): a thing which is very slender and weak.

   “[T]he contents of his plate chest, consisting of two withered atomies of teaspoons, and an obsolete pair of knock-knee'd sugar tongs; […]”

   “They mounted up and up, through the musty smell of an old close house, little used, to a large garret bed-room. Meagre and spare, like all the other rooms, it was even uglier and grimmer than the rest, by being the place of banishment for the worn out furniture. Its moveables were […] 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.”

adj

1. Made up of tiny particles.

   “Things that flit in the sky or creep / In the atomy dust, or swarm in the deep, […]”

2. Resembling a tiny particle; atomlike.

   “Hour after hour we slopped along, by the roaring torrent, and under noble Lesser Alps which were clothed in rich velvety green all the way up and had little atomy Swiss homes perched upon grassy benches along their mist-dimmed heights.”

   “Imagination can not paint a history with as many unturned leaves, with the print of the Creator fresh in fadeless colors, as that of the atomy speck, hurled through space, which we mortals call the world!— […]”