[f. BOLD a. + -NESS.] The quality of being bold.
1. Courage, daring, fearlessness.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 226. That the flese … Were brought throw þi boldness into þis big yle.
1489. Caxton, Faytes of A., II. xxxv. 151. The rommayns yssued ayenst hym by grete boldnes.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 175. There is demaunded a boldnesse of stomacke to dare to doe the thing.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. i. 134. You call honorable Boldnes, impudent Sawcinesse.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., II. xxiii. (1693), 156. Boldness is the Power to speak or do what we intend, before others, without fear or disorder.
1876. Green, Short Hist., v. § 3. The boldness of his words sprang perhaps from a knowledge that his end was near.
† b. To take (a or the) boldness: to venture, to take the liberty (to do a thing). Obs. or dial.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 74 b. The serpent toke a boldnesse to tempte the woman.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, II. x. 211. The Amorites took the boldness to keep possession thereof.
c. 1680. Beveridge, Serm. (1729), I. 273. Who are we, that we should take the boldness to ask any thing of him?
[1864. dial. (Epsom, Surrey), ‘Father’s boldness, Ma’am, and he’ve sent you a few flowers.’]
2. Impudence, shamelessness, presumption.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XVIII. 386. Þe boldnesse of her synnes.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 43. Boldenesse or homelynesse, presumpcio.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., I. ii. 42. Vnmanner’d Dogge … Ile strike thee to my Foote, And spurne vpon thee Begger for thy boldnesse. Ibid. (1601), All’s Well, II. i. 174. A strumpets boldnesse.
1602. Manningham, Diary (1868), 10 Nov. I told her of her saucy boldness.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., cxiii. Should licensed boldness gather force.
† 3. Confidence, assurance, security. Upon boldness of: in reliance on, on the security of. Obs.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron., 40. For boldenes he wild him bynd to som berde in boure.
1447–8. Shillingford, Lett. (1871), 91. Upon boldenysse of the said nywe charter.
a. 1535. More, Edw. V., in Southey, Comm.-pl. Bk., Ser. II. (1849), 91. Unthrifts riot and run in debt upon boldness of these places.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., IV. ii. 165. In the boldnes of my cunning, I will lay my selfe in hazard.
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, Occas. Medit. (1851), 28. Perfect righteousness shall give us perfect boldness both of sight and fruition.
[1717. De Foe, Hist. Ch. Scot., 6. I take upon me with Boldness to assure the World, it is not so.]
4. transf. Vigor or freedom of conception or execution; forcibleness.
1692. Dryden, State Innoc., Pref. (J.). The boldness of the Figures are to be hidden sometimes by the address of the Poet.
1777. Robertson, Hist. Amer. (1783), II. 209. Rivalling the great masters … in boldness of design.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, VI. vi. 345. Brilliancy of colouring and boldness of outline.
1856. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., III. IV. iii. § 20. There is as much difference between the boldness of the true and the false masters, as there is between the courage of a pure woman and the shamelessness of a lost one.
