Also 6 -ens. [a. late Of. vehemence (F. véhémence), or ad. L. vehementia: see next.
1. Intensity or strength of smell or color. rare.
1535. Coverdale, 2 Macc. ix. 10. Him might no man now abyde ner beare, for the vehemence of styncke.
1844. Hood, Haunted Ho., III. xvii. The Bloody Hand shone strangely out With vehemence of colour!
2. Impetuosity, great force or violence, of physical action or agents.
1542. Boorde, Dyetary, xxxv. (1870), 297. The dust also that ryseth in the strete thorow the vehemens of the wynde.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 954. A universal hubbub wilde Of stunning sounds and voices all confus’d … assaults his eare With loudest vehemence.
1756. Burke, Subl. & B., IV. iii. His eyes are dragged in wards, and rolled with great vehemence.
1794. R. J. Sulivan, View Nat., I. 148. The action, by which a body is deprived of phlogiston by means of pure air, with such vehemence as to generate not only heat but flame.
1857. Miller, Elem. Chem., Org., 49. Owing to the feebler affinities of these elements, the reactions take place with less vehemence.
3. Great or excessive ardor, eagerness or fervor of personal feeling or action; passionate force, violence or excitement.
1529. More, Dyaloge, Wks. 265/2. By waye of excesse & yperbole, to declare the vehemence of his mynde in the matter of fayth.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., III. ii. 200. Nay, I pre’thee now, with most petitionary vehemence, tell me who it is.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. viii. 35. Sometimes the hurt … is caused by the vehemence, or long continuance of the Passion.
1699. Burnet, 39 Art., i. 27. Passion produces a Vehemence of Action.
1748. Anson’s Voy., III. x. 544. Hypocrisy and fraud are often not less mischievous … than impetuosity and vehemence of temper.
1769. Junius Lett., xxxv. (1778), 187. You measure their affections by the vehemence of their expressions.
1839. Dickens, Nickleby, xii. With all the vehemence that his indignant and excited feelings could bring to bear upon it.
1839. Fr. A. Kemble, Resid. in Georgia (1863), 29. With an almost savage vehemence of gesticulation.
1874. Green, Short Hist., vii. § 1. 347. Cromwell … was quick to profit by the vehemence of the Catholic reaction.
b. An instance of this. rare.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), I. 33. Is it possible that my brother and sister could make their very failings, their vehemences, of such importance to all the family?
