dewy : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 23 is:

dewy \DOO-ee\ adjective
1 : moist with, affected by, or suggestive of dew
*2 : innocent, unsophisticated

Example sentence:
"She was cute. She had that dewy look. Ryan was unable to remain angry with pretty women...." (Tom Clancy, _Patriot Games_)

Did you know?
"And her faire deawy eies with kisses deare Shee ofte did bathe" (Edmund Spenser, _The Faerie Queene_). "I would these dewy teares were from the ground" (William Shakespeare, _Richard III_). "Till dewie sleep Oppress'd them" (John Milton, _Paradise Lost_). "Strengthen me, enlighten me ... Thou dewy dawn of memory" (Alfred Tennyson, "Ode to Memory"). Such lines exemplify how the greats have poetically extended the characteristics of dewy grass to misty or crying eyes, as well as to things, like sleep, that affect people gently like forming dew, or to things, like memory, that gradually vanish like a morning's dew. Not until the 20th century, however, did people begin to connect newly formed, undisturbed dew with freshness or purity and, in turn, with innocence and naivete.

* Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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