atomy /ˈætəmi/noun 7adjective 2forms 3 noun7 •A tiny particle; an atom, a mote, a speck.[…] 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. — 1859 •A floating mote or speck of dust.[T]hicker then in sunne are Atomies, / Flew bullets, fier, and slaughtered dead mens cries. — 1595 •(dialect, figurative) A person who is very emaciated or thin; a skeleton.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. — 1731 •(dialect, figurative) A very small being; a mite.Was there a "delicate atomy" of minute dimensions and pale complexion, he forthwith strutted a hardy Highlander. — 1831 •(no longer used) The smallest, indivisible constituent part or unit of something; an atom.Spayne then enamour'd with the Romane trull, / Calls all her forces, more then Atomies, / And tells Ill-fortunes storie to the full; […] — 1595 •(figurative, no longer used) 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; […] — 1846 •(no longer used) A skeleton.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; […] — 1755 adjective2 •Made up of tiny particles.Things that flit in the sky or creep / In the atomy dust, or swarm in the deep, […] — 1918 •Resembling a tiny particle; atomlike. formsatomies · more atomy · most atomy
