mealy

adj, noun — 3 senses

mealy

adj

/ˈmiːli/

Etymology From meal + -y. Cognate with German mehlig.

1

Resembling meal (the foodstuff).

Below the hole the mice made in the woodwork was a pile of mealy sawdust.

2

Of the pale yellow color of a canary.

That it is a cross-breed there can be no doubt, from the fact that after a year or two the brilliant colours, both orange and black, begin to fade—the orange fading into a mealy tint, and the black to a dingy grey.1875, The Bird-Keeper's Guide and Companion, page 19:

Derived terms: mealily, mealiness, mealybug, mealy bug, mealy-mouthed, mealy plum aphid, mealywing, unmealy
Related terms: cornmealy

mealy

noun

Etymology From meal + -y. Cognate with German mehlig.

1

A canary of a pale yellow color.

I know not, indeed, if the artist could give the beautiful orange which distinguish ^([sic]) the jonque, or the mellowness of tint that pervades the mealy.1800, The New and Complete Canary-bird Fancier, page 8:
The clear Norwich canaries, as well as the evenly marked, the crested, the ticked, the green, and the unevenly marked, are each divided into two separate classes, i.e., jonques and mealies.1884, Robert Linlithgow Wallace, The Canary Book, page 225:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.