Shadowy, a.
1. Full of shade or shadows; causing shade or shadow. "Shadowy verdure." Fenton. This shadowy desert, unfrequented woods. Shak.
2. Hence, dark; obscure; gloomy; dim. "The shadowy past." Longfellow.
3. Not brightly luminous; faintly light. The moon . . . with more pleasing light, Shadowy sets off the face things. Milton.
4. Faintly representative; hence, typical. From sshadowy types to truth, from flesh to spirit. Milton.
1 more senses
5. Unsubstantial; unreal; as, shadowy honor. Milton has brought into his poems two actors of a shadowy and fictitious nature, in the persons of Sin and Death. Addison.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for shadowy; he lists it under dark, vain.
Where he writes about it:
That is obscure, shadowy, or shady from which the light is more or less cut off. — from dark
Synonyms
darkvainabortivebaselessblackbootlessdeceitfuldelusivedimdismalduskyemptyfruitlessfutilegloomyidleinconstantineffectualmurkymysteriousnugatorynullobscureopaqueprofitlesssableshadysomberswartswarthytriflingtrivialunavailingunimportantunprofitableunrealunsatisfyingunserviceableunsubstantialuselessvapidvisionaryworthless