Also 4 uiolence, 4–6 vyolence, 5 Sc. wyol-, wiolence, 5–6 violens (7 voyolence). [a. AF. and OF. (also mod.F.) violence, ad. L. violentia vehemence, impetuosity, etc., f. violentus VIOLENT a. Cf. Pr. violensa, -ansa, Sp. and Pg. violencia, It. violenza.]
1. The exercise of physical force so as to inflict injury on, or cause damage to, persons or property; action or conduct characterized by this; treatment or usage tending to cause bodily injury or forcibly interfering with personal freedom.
c. 1290. Beket, 932, in S. Eng. Leg., I. 133. Ȝif ani man hond ov set, ich ov hote al-so Þat ȝe þe sentence of holi churche, for swuche violence ȝe do.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 11142. Clerk to bete, or handes on ley yn vyolence, hyt ys grete eye.
c. 1340. Hampole, Pr. Consc., 1175. Þe world es … a sted of mykel wrechednes,… Of filthe and of corrupcion, Of violence and of oppression.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 161. Þei holden neuer neiþer lawe of god in dymes takynge, & taken hem bi vyolence & stronge curses aȝenst mennus goode wille.
c. 1420. Prymer, 74. Lord! y suffre violence; answere þou for me!
a. 1445[?]. [? Gascoign], Life St. Bridget, in New Leg. England (Pynson), 123. When ye cytezens sawe yt by prayers they profyted nat, somwhat with vyolence, neuerthelesse reuerently they ledde hir out of hir house into the watersyde.
1504. Atkynson, trans. De Imitatione, I. xxiv. 174. They that by vyolence restrayne theyr selfe fro synne and euer be busy to make the bodye obedyent to the soule.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 38. Then might they also be in the more hope to give the repulse to the Turke, with all his violence.
a. 1596. Sir T. More, II. iii. 14. They intend to offer violence To the amazed Lombards.
1617. Moryson, Itin., III. 47. Charles the fifth … was wont to say, that the King of Spaine ruled over Asses, doing nothing without blowes and violence.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xx. 102. Promises proceeding from fear of death, or violence, are no Covenants.
1718. Free-thinker, No. 58. 20. Almost all the Governments … had their Commencement in Violence.
1759. Johnson, Rasselas, xxxvii[i]. The violence of war admits of no distinction.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 604. In remote And barb’rous climes, where violence prevails, And strength is lord of all.
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, III. 524. The Government … protected them against the perils of violence and rapacity, and ensured them tranquillity and repose.
1876. Bristowe, Theory & Pract. Med. (1878), 532. It occasionally originates … in the effects of very violent muscular exertion or of violence inflicted from without.
personif. 1609. Dekker, Work Armorours, Wks. (Grosart), IV. 131. Violence hath borne many great offices, and Money hath done much for him.
1787. Burns, Death R. Dundas, v. Mark ruffian Violence, ingrain’d with crimes, Rousing elate in these degenerate times.
b. In the phr. to do violence to, unto (or with indirect object): To inflict harm or injury upon; to outrage or violate. † Also to make violence.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 19325. Þai durst na uiolence to þam do For þe folk þam helded to.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1071. When venkkyst was no vergynyte. ne vyolence maked.
1390. Gower, Conf., III. 340. He telleth hem the violence, Which the tretour Strangulio And Dionise him hadde do.
1535. Coverdale, Luke iii. 14. Do no man violence ner wronge.
1594. Kyd, Cornelia, IV. i. 28. Iuba and Petreus, fiercely combatting, Haue each done other equall violence.
1602. Shaks., Ham., I. ii. 171. Nor shall you doe mine eare that violence, To make it truster of your owne report Against your selfe.
a. 1619. Fletcher, etc., Knt. Malta, V. ii. They have done violence unto her Tomb, Not granting rest unto her in the grave.
1692. Dryden, St. Euremont’s Ess., 93. I make no question, but that in the violence of the Triumvirate, he did much Violence to himself.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, XII. iii. To say the truth, we have … often done great violence to the luxuriance of our genius.
1860. Pusey, Min. Proph., 474. They did violence to the majesty of the law,… and then, through profaning it, did violence to man.
c. In weakened sense: Improper treatment or use of a word; wresting or perversion of meaning or application; unauthorized alteration of wording.
1596. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (ed. 2), 143. But Master Camden with lesse violence … deriueth it [sc. dele] from the Bryttish Dole.
1659. Pearson, Creed, ii. 294. Being in some places Adonai cannot be read for Jehovah, without manifest violence offered to the Text.
1662. Evelyn, Chalcogr., 7. Neither the Paradigmatic … or any of the Plastic can be call’d Sculpture without a Catachresis and some Violence.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, IV. vi. A passion which might without any great violence to the word, be called love.
1856. Maurice, Gosp. St. John, vii. 94. Wherever violence is done to the truth of language, I believe more or less of violence is done to some higher truth.
1861. Paley, Æschylus (ed. 2), Supplices, 510, note. But this is a reckless alteration. He might with less violence have written πατρὸς.
1875. E. White, Life in Christ, IV. xxvii. (1878), 446. The violence of the proposed interpretation is … conspicuous.
d. Undue constraint applied to some natural process, habit, etc., so as to prevent its free development or exercise.
1715. trans. Gregory’s Astron. (1726), I. 200. We must … not make our Reason and Philosophy perpetually offer violence to our Sight and other Senses.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, VI. iv. He was obliged to attend near a quarter of an hour, though with great violence to his natural impetuosity, before he was suffered to speak.
1847. Yeowell, Anc. Brit. Ch., ix. 93. The first Christian missionaries in Ireland seem to have carefully avoided all unnecessary violence to the ancient habits of the aborigines.
e. Law. (See quot.)
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 713. Violence, the question in tort, as to the amount of liability incurred by the owners for outrages and irregularities committed by the master.
2. With a and pl. An instance or case of violent, injurious or severe treatment; a violent act or proceeding.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxxiv. (Pelagia), 234. Þe feynde … can cry,… ‘Alace! I thole but defence of hyme þis ald gret wyolence.
1390. Gower, Conf., III. 208. The tidinge of this violence … Sche sende anon ay wydewhere To suche frendes as sche hadde.
1435. Misyn, Fire of Love, II. vii. 86. Well þis is cald a rauischynge als þe todyr, for with a violens it is doyne & als wer agayns kynde.
1508. Dunbar, Gold. Targe, 159. Curage in thame was noucht begonne to spring: Full sore thay dred to done a violence.
1596. Spenser, State Irel., 510 b. She perhaps, for very compassion of such calamities, will not only stop the stream of such violences, and return to her wonted mildness, but [etc.].
1649. Milton, Eikon., Pref. A tedious … warr on his subjects, wherein he hath so farr exceeded his arbitrary violences in time of peace.
1682. Burnet, Rights Princes, ii. 64. He laments the Violences that were used in some Elections.
1704. Col. Rec. Pennsylv., II. 191. If they were clear of the violences done lately upon a family of the English.
1759. H. Walpole, Lett. to G. Montagu, 23 Dec. Has your brother told you of the violences in Ireland?
1818. Cobbett, Pol. Reg., XXXIII. 12. They saw nothing but the violences on Sir Francis’s side.
1850. Kingsley, Alt. Locke, Pref. If the violences and tyrannies of American Democracy are to be really warnings to us [etc.].
1864. Maine, Anc. Law, vi. (1870), 206. The violences inseparable from the best-ordered ancient society.
b. In weakened sense (cf. 1 c and 1 d).
1706. Estcourt, Fair Example, IV. i. I yielded to the Intreaty of my Friends, Acted a violence on my reluctant Heart, And gave my trembling Hand … to Another.
1777. Hume, Ess. & Treat., I. 184. If he have but resolution enough … to impose a violence on himself.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 119. It would yet be a violence to myself, to refrain from doing the Proprietors justice.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), IV. 371. Then a violence would be offered, as well to the words, as to the meaning of the party.
3. Force or strength of physical action or natural agents; forcible, powerful, or violent action or motion (in early use freq. connoting destructive force or capacity).
Now often merging into next, with an intensive sense.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, II. 775. For whan a pipe is blowen sharpe, The aire ys twyst with violence. Ibid. (c. 1386), Can. Yeom. Prol. & T., 355. Thise metals been of so gret violence, Oure walles mowe nat make hem resistence.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xxxiii. 151. Sum ware drouned by violence of þe wawes.
1426. Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 12210. I … sawh a whel … By vyolence tourne aboute Contynuelly to-for my face.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 414 b. Than chiefly was the citie meruelouslye beaten with shot, the violence wherof was so great, that [etc.].
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., III. i. 125. To be imprison’d in the viewlesse windes, And blowne with restlesse violence round about.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., 513. The river Aufon … breaketh forth with more violence upon the flats adioyning.
1659. Leak, Water-wks., 1. To make the Water enter therein with force,… the vessel … shall be made as high as may be, that it may give so much the more violence to the Water.
1703. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 84. The shorter the Stuff that the Tennant is made on, the less Violence the Tennant is subject to.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 61, note. The strokes of the sea may at be Edystone be so great as to wash the poison out again from the wood, that in a situation of less violence could … slowly insinuate itself.
1841. Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 104. He knocked a fourth time, and with violence.
1862. Darwin, Fertil. Orchids, ii. 57. The pollinia cannot be jarred out of the anther-cells by violence.
1895. Law Times Rep., LXXIII. 156/2. Two vessels … drifted through the violence of a storm on to the toe of a breakwater.
4. Great force, severity or vehemence; intensity of some condition or influence.
1390. Gower, Conf., I. 280. Wrathe … Which hath hise wordes ay so hote, That all a mannes pacience Is fyred of the violence.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xv. 70. Oft tymes he fell by violence of þat sekeness. Ibid., xviii. 81. Þe grete violence of hete þat dissoluez þaire bodys.
1577. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., 28. Rye … suffereth the violence of mystes and frostes.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, II. x. 103. Arabia, the which is burnt with the Sunne, having no showres to temper the violence thereof.
1658. Phillips, s.v. Intercident, An extraordinary critical day,… being caused by the violence of the disease.
1702. J. Purcell, Cholick (1714), 137. If an Inflammation arises,… Bleeding is to be order’d, and repeated according to its Violence.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xli. She went off as peacefully as a child, for all the violence of her disorder was passed.
1809. Med. Jrnl., XXI. 518. The inflammatory complaints, particularly pneumonia, have recurred with considerable violence.
1874. J. L. Patterson, Ess. Relig. & Lit., 3rd Ser. 134. It is yet obvious that … these laws apply with a far different and more grievous violence to the Catholic, than to any other … Church.
b. Intensity or excess of contrast.
1874. H. H. Cole, Catal. Ind. Art S. Kens. Mus., 218. Violence of contrast either of light or dark colours, or gaudy, florid, and large ornament are among the common sources of error which ruin design.
5. Vehemence of personal feeling or action; great, excessive, or extreme ardor or fervor; also, violent or passionate conduct or language; passion, fury.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 47. But arche wives, egre in ther vyolence, Fers as tygres for to make affray.
1563. Golding, Cæsar (1565), 119. The enemy being not able to withstand the violence of oure fotemen,… toke them to flyght.
1604. Shaks., Oth., II. i. 224. Marke me with what violence she first lou’d the Moore.
1654. Nicholas Papers (Camden), II. 84. I was trubled to see the violence it putt him into.
1696. Phillips (ed. 5), Violence,… figuratively spoken of Human Passions and Designs, when unruly, and not to be govern’d.
1735. Somerville, Chace, III. 544. He vents the cooling Stream, and up the Breeze Urges his Course with eager Violence.
1818. Coleridge, Friend (1865), 142. To expect that the violence of party spirit is never more to return.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xxxii. I said nothing to deserve such a horrid imputation as your violence infers.
1841. Elphinstone, Hist. Ind., II. 321. It was concluded by Akber’s reproving the mullahs for their violence.
† 6. Violation of some condition. Obs.–1
a. 1754. Fielding, Remedy Afflict., Wks. 1775, IX. 251. Nor is there any dissuasive from such contemplation [of the loss of friends]: it is no breach of friendship, nor violence of paternal fondness.
