different between squally vs blustery

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?skw??li/

Etymology 1

From squall +? -y; from 1719.

Adjective

squally (comparative squallier or more squally, superlative squalliest or most squally)

1. Characterized by squalls, or sudden violent bursts of wind; gusty.
   • 1759, John Lindsay, A Voyage to the Coast of Africa, In 1758, page 107:

     On the eighth of February the winds grew ?trong and ?qually, accompanied with rain and a north-we?t ?well; […] .

   • 1824, John Davy, Observations on the Specific Gravity and Temperature of Sea-Water, Made During a Voyage from Ceylon to England, in 1819 and 1820, David Brewster, Robert Jameson (editors), The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, Volume 10, page 319:

     Feb. 9. 1820. […] The night was rather squally and cloudy, with occasional showers.

   • 2011, Mary Maclaren, The Four Elizabeths, Xlibris (2011), ?ISBN, page 138:

     Within three days, having sailed into increasingly squally winds but still with extremely high temperatures, Arndell found himself kept busy with renewed bouts of seasickness.

2. Producing or characteristic of loud wails.
   • 1953, Annemarie Selinko, Désirée, William Morrow & Company (1953), page 161:

     Something whimpered in the room—high and squally.

   • 1984, Bernard Evslin, Hercules, Open Road Integrated Media (2012), ?ISBN, unnumbered page:

     One baby was three times as big as his brother and different in other ways. He wasn't bald and squinched and squally like most infants, but had a nimbus of red-gold hair and huge gray eyes and lay there smiling to himself.

   • 2012, Ferida Wolff, "Not My Father's Son", in Chicken Soup for the Father and Son Soul: Celebrating the Bond That Connects Generations, Open Road Integrated Media (2012), ?ISBN, unnumbered page:

     “Well,” he said, “if I can't have a Buick, I'll at least have a son.”

     When I was born, he very quickly saw that I was a scrawny, squally baby girl. I was not a Buick, and I was not his son.

Synonyms

• squallish

Derived terms

• squalliness

Etymology 2

Probably related to scall +? -y.

Adjective

squally (comparative squallier or more squally, superlative squalliest or most squally)

1. (Britain, obsolete) Having unproductive wet spots due to poor drainage.
2. (weaving, of cloth) Not equally good throughout; not uniform; uneven; faulty.
   • 1763, Danby Pickering, The Statutes at Large, From the First Year of Q. Mary to the Thirty-Fifth Year of Q. Elizabeth, Volume VI, Joseph Bentham (1763), page 98:

     It is enacted, That if at any time after the first day of May, any cloth or ker?ie, through the default or negligence of the carders, spinners or weavers, or any of them, shall or do prove pursy, cockly, bandy, squally or rowy by warp or woof, […]

English

Etymology

bluster +? -y

Adjective

blustery (comparative more blustery, superlative most blustery)

1. Blowing in loud and abrupt bursts.

   Synonyms: blusterous, gusty

   Currently, there are blustery winds blowing in Patagonia.

   • 1920, Clara Ingram Judson, Mary Jane’s City Home, New York: Barse & Hopkins, “Lost—One Doll Cart,” p. 117,^[1]

     Fortunately, that May morning was bright and sunny; the breeze blew warm from the southland instead of cold and blustery from the lake, and it was the very best kind of a morning possible for being out of doors.

   • 1957, Bernard Malamud, The Assistant, New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, Chapter 1, p. 8,^[2]

     He wished fleetingly that he could once more be out in the open, as when he was a boy—never in the house, but the sound of the blustery wind frightened him.

2. Accompanied by strong wind.

   Synonyms: blowy, blusterous, breezy, squally, stormy, tempestuous, windy

   Today is such a cold blustery day!

   • 1918, Willa Cather, My Ántonia, Introduction,^[3]

     […] blustery winters with little snow, when the whole country is stripped bare and gray as sheet-iron.

   • 1999, Colm Tóibín, The Blackwater Lightship, New York: Scribner, Chapter , p. 88,^[4]

     The drizzle became blustery rain as she approached Curracloe.

3. (of a person) Pompous or arrogant, especially in one's speech; given to outbursts.

   Synonyms: blustering, blusterous, swaggering

   • 1858, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia, London: Chapman and Hall, Volume 1, Book 3, Chapter 12, pp. 295-296,^[5]

     Duke Wilhelm […] seems to have been of a headlong, blustery, uncertain disposition; much tossed about in the controversies of his day.

   • 1930, Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon, New York: Knopf, Chapter 1,^[6]

     He talks in a rather loud, blustery way and has a nervous, irritable manner.

   • 1937, Lloyd C. Douglas, Forgive Us Our Trespasses, London: Peter Davies, Chapter 16, p. 290,^[7]

     Uncle Miles wished only to dodge the issue that had hurled them apart, offering an effusive and blustery hospitality as an alternative to the air-clearing discussion which the situation so urgently called for.

   • 1989, Shashi Tharoor, The Great Indian Novel, New York: Arcade, 2011, Chapter 22,^[8]

     Vayu was a large, strong, blustery character, full of drive and energy but mercurial in temperament.

Related terms

• blustering
• blusterous

Translations