wantonness
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English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
- wantonnesse (archaic)
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English wantonnesse, wantonesse, wantounesse, wantownesse, equivalent to wanton + -ness.
Noun[edit]
wantonness (usually uncountable, plural wantonnesses)
- (uncountable) The state or characteristic of being wanton; recklessness, especially as represented in lascivious or other excessive behavior.
- c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:
- The ſpirit of vvantonness is, ſure, ſcared out of him: if the devil have him not in fee-ſimple, vvith fine and recovery, he vvill never, I think, in the vvay of vvaſte, attempt us again.
- 1624 (first performance), John Fletcher, Rule a Wife and Have a Wife. A Comoedy. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Leonard Lichfield […], published 1640, →OCLC, Act II, scene [ii], page 16:
- A vvantonneſſe in vvealth, methinks I agree not vvith, / Tis ſuch a trouble to be married too, / And have a thouſand things of great importance, / Jevvells and plates, and fooleries moleſt mee, / To have a mans brains vvhimſied with his vvealth: […]
- 1801, Robert Southey, “The Fifth Book”, in Thalaba the Destroyer, volume I, London: […] [F]or T[homas] N[orton] Longman and O[wen] Rees, […], by Biggs and Cottle, […], →OCLC, pages 258–259:
- The desert Pelican had built her nest / In that deep solitude. / And now returned from distant flight / Fraught with the river stream, / Her load of water had disburthened there. / Her young in the refreshing bath / Sported all wantonness; […]
- 1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 16, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC:
- The sweetness was turned to adamantine, heartless cruelty, and the purity to voluptuous wantonness.
- (countable, dated) A particular wanton act.
- 1882, John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England during the Stuart Dynasty, volume 3, Boston: Little Brown, page 366:
- These were simply the wantonnesses of a dishonest man.
Translations[edit]
characteristic of being wanton
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