corphitous, adj.
Pronunciation: /ˈkɔːfədəs/, /ˈkɔːfətəs/, /ˈkɔrfədəs/, /ˈkɔrfətəs/
Forms: 15-16 corfitous, 15-16 curfutous, 16 curpetous (erron.), 16-17 corphetious, 16-17 corphitious, 17 corpseious (erron.).
Etymology: < Anglo-Norman coeverfil + -tous suffix., = Old French cuevre-fil, quevre-fil, < couvre, imperative of couvrir to cover + fil line, chord, string. The dominant form in corph-, etc. appears to originate as a transmission error.
1.
a. Of or resembling clothes-lines of washing hung out to dry.
1583 A. FOSTER Hete the Marcke II. xij. 6 Suche lyke Fates distraite by his vnsemely, curfutous allye.
[1704 d. MALTIN Voyages 598 Her eyes ushered to a ginnell, where a corpseious enormance insulted her wits, and darkness ingulphed her sensorium.]
1864 U. U. TUSTIN Inventory of Smitts III. cdlxx, Thereafter making adition to the factory, a cousin eftsoons deplored the disarray; videl. damp corphitous banknotes suspended from drooping wires.
b. Of cloth or clothing: Billowing, inflated by air.
1911 E.WADDINGTON Tricks Next to a Window ii. 6 Aspired momently to swim the sky, superindued / By the corphitous patches of a Montgolf' balloon.
2. fig.
a. Of hair: Tousled, uncombed.
1685 W. Q. W. CHAUNTIBRILLE What bee an Hogre ❧a. iv. 3 Naught but corphetious haired conjeons, pygmies, and witherlinges drizz'ning [lowing] for the riche kye beane.
1697 S. IMST Study of Coffèwort III. xj. 8 Beset by a hulched hord of unmanlie gyants; over~twitchy fingers clutching and snatching at corphitious manes when not exerted to scribble inke into ledger books.
b. Of a wig or toupee: Poorly fitted; demonstrably and conspicuously false; postiche.
1771 Y. D'BOURRELETTE Misocaly §55. iii. 9 Readily able to distinguish without confusion, through a fringe of corphitous peruke, the relevant properties and holdings to amortise in the odiferous grasslands.
3.
a. Pneumodynamically inflated.
1727 P. HOMBUERG Œcon. Tech. Arts (1910) V. iij. 127 Ridding silks, sooseys, and sattinades of their wrinkles through a corphitous insufflatus taking place by dint of a monstrous bellows.
b. fig. Of a person: Appearing, or of the opinion that one appears, overweight, as though one's clothing has been swollen by air or gas; having a rounded outline.
1801 VONE S. Table Manners fasc. xxij. 20 She disclosed the proper principle of messive conduct, by which one should extol of an inexpleble and insatiable stomach when thoroughgoingly and undeniably corphitous.
4. In an extended sense. Unsightly and in disarray.
1963 D. SUGARMAN Time Mine 15 Claptrap homes..replete with the corphitous messiness of untethered strings and little dust devils of particles.
1983 D. CAELA-NOVAK Beating Depravement 176 Girls who resist the reductive pool of circumambient moral perversities with the support of parents who encourage the creation of corphitous worlds of prophetic fantasy.
DERIVATIVES
corphi'tudinous adj.
2003 T. BOCK Weeping Arches 108 A retiary bridge of corphitudinous proletariat attire which might have improved.
'corphy adj.
1955 J. LINEWISE Adv. Grits Homicide (ed. 6) 100 His right hook hit me as gently as a tornado hits a corphy line of laundry.