wantonness

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English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English wantonnesse, wantonesse, wantounesse, wantownesse, equivalent to wanton +‎ -ness.

Noun

wantonness (usually uncountable, plural wantonnesses)

  1. (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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
      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 , 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: […]
    • 1648, Robert Herrick, “Delight in Disorder”, in Hesperides: Or, The Works both Humane & Divine , London: John Williams, and Francis Eglesfield, and are to be sold by Tho Hunt, , →OCLC, page 29:
      A Svveet diſorder in the dreſſe / Kindles in cloathes a vvantonneſſe: […]
    • 1801, Robert Southey, “The Fifth Book”, in Thalaba the Destroyer, volume I, London: or T N Longman and O 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.
  2. (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.

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