moonshiny

English

Etymology

From moonshine +‎ -y.

Adjective

moonshiny (comparative more moonshiny, superlative most moonshiny)

1. (obsolete) Moonlit; lit by moonlight.

   Coordinate term: sunshiny

   • 1759, Laurence Sterne, chapter 17, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman‎^[1], volume II:

     When Trim, as his custom was, after he had put my uncle Toby to bed, going down one moon-shiny night to see that every thing was right at his fortifications—in the lane separated from the bowling-green with flowering shrubs and holly—he espied his Bridget.

   • 1821, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 35, in The Spy‎^[2]:

     “Oh, the falls!—they are a thing to be looked at on a moonshiny night, by your Aunt Sarah and that gay old bachelor, Colonel Singleton; but a fellow like myself never shows surprise, unless it may be at such a touch as this.”

2. (dated, colloquial) Crazy; nonsensical; ludicrous.
   • 1853, Broomhill: Or, The County Beauties, page 7:

     Canvassing it was like fishing for salmon: you might throw out anything in the shape of a fly, the most gaudy, the most moonshiny, the most unlife-like and unrealizable thing that could be fastened upon a hook […]

Synonyms

• (moonlit): moonlight (attributive)