Ferny

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or pertaining to ferns.
  2. 2
    Resembling or characteristic of a fern, in appearance, smell, etc.

    "All kinds of mosses grew by the stream—tufty, flat, ferny, and curly, green, yellow and a whitish kind that was tipped with scarlet sealing wax."

  3. 3
    Covered in or filled with ferns; flanked or surrounded by ferns.

    "And from the bush there came the sound of little streams flowing, quickly, lightly, slipping between the smooth stones, gushing into ferny basins and out again; and there was the splashing of big drops on large leaves […]"

Adjective
  1. 1
    abounding in or covered with ferns wordnet
  2. 2
    resembling ferns especially in leaf shape wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
fernedfernedfernlikefernlike

Example

More examples

"Returning, I had to cross before the looking-glass; my fascinated glance involuntarily explored the depth it revealed. All looked colder and darker in that visionary hollow than in reality: and the strange little figure there gazing at me, with a white face and arms specking the gloom, and glittering eyes of fear moving where all else was still, had the effect of a real spirit: I thought it like one of the tiny phantoms, half fairy, half imp, Bessie’s evening stories represented as coming out of lone, ferny dells in moors, and appearing before the eyes of belated travelers."

Etymology

From Middle English ferny, from Old English fearniġ, equivalent to fern + -y.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.