[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The quality or condition of being vague; lack of distinctness or preciseness; indefiniteness.
1799. Mackintosh, Study Law Nat., 8. Notwithstanding objections of some writers to the vagueness of the language.
1829. H. Neele, Lit. Rem., 52. A great fault into which descriptive writers fall is the vagueness and indistinctness of their pictures.
1843. Mill, Logic, I. ii. § 5. We shall have occasion to show under what conditions this vagueness may exist.
1874. L. Stephen, Hours in Library (1892), I. vii. 238. A general vagueness as to the ordinary duties of mankind.
a. 1881. A. Barratt, Phys. Metempiric (1883), 52. The weakness of this conception is its vagueness.
b. An instance of this; a vague thing, feature, word, etc.
1838. Lond. & Westm. Rev., XXIX. 68. With a remark or two on those errors and vaguenesses we shall conclude.
1839. Poe, Fall House Usher, Wks. 1864, I. 298. The paintings … which grew, touch by touch, into vaguenesses at which I shuddered. Ibid. (a. 1849), R. H. Horne, Ibid., III. 436. Pure vaguenesses of speech abound.
