[f. VOID a. + -NESS.]
† 1. Freedom from work; leisure. Obs.–1
1382. Wyclif, Ecclus. xxxviii. 25. Wisdom wrijt in tyme of voydenesse [1383 marg., That is, in the tyme, in which thou art voide of other werkis of nede].
† 2. The quality of being devoid or destitute of value or worth; inanity, vanity, futility.
1388. Wyclif, Wisd. xiv. 14. For whi the voidnesse of men [L. supervacuitas] foond these idols in to the world.
1552. Huloet, Voydenes, inanitas, uanitudo.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, I. l. 165. We are not so full of evill, as of voydnesse and inanitie.
3. The state or condition of being void, empty or unoccupied; emptiness, vacancy, vacuity.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 116. Þe brayn haþ sum substaunce of marie þe which fulfilliþ þe voidenes [c. 1430 voydenesses] of þe forseid panniclis.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, IV. xviii. (1869), 185. If þou be void þou shalt breke, oþer sowne hye; In voydnesse is but murmure whan men smyte it with an hard thing.
1561. Hollybush, Hom. Apoth., 20 b. But if the voydnesse or emptinesse is in the nethermost membres, then tye hys vpper membres.
1595. Spenser, Col. Clout, 850. Through him … began … the hungry t’ eat, And voydnesse to seeke full satietie.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 839. The Stoicks say, that the aire … admitteth no voidnesse at all.
a. 1693. Urquhart’s Rabelais, III. xiii. 105. There is nothing in the Body but a kind of Voidness and Inanity.
1727. Bailey (vol. II.), Voidness, emptiness.
1801. Lusignan, I. 74. They seemed robbed of attraction, and to her preoccupied mind presented only the voidness of a desert.
1840. Blackw. Mag., XLVII. 775. The state of mind we have slightly depicted—so auspicious, one should think, from its troubled voidness, to the reception of religious convictions.
1888. L. Hearn, in Harper’s Mag., LXXVII. July, 210/1. The perfect transparency and voidness about us make the immense power of this invisible medium seem something ghostly and awful.
b. A void or vacant space, esp. = VACUITY 8 b.
c. 1430. [see c. 1400 above].
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 820. The schoole of Pythagoras holdeth that there is a voidnesse without the world,… out of which the world doth draw breath. Ibid., 1336. It is not likely that this world floteth … in a vast and infinit voidnesse.
1642. H. More, Song of Soul, II. Infin. Worlds, l. This precious sweet Ethereall dew … God … did distill … thorough all that hollow Voidnesse.
† 4. The state or condition of being without something; freedom from, absence or lack of, something. Obs.
1534. Whitinton, Tullyes Offices, I. (1540), 33. The valyaunce of stomake is to be gyue to them and voydeness from angre and grefe.
a. 1569. Kingesmyll, Confl. Satan (1578), 25. This is our Crimosin, no less then voidnesse of all goodnesse.
1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 286/2. He hardeneth himselfe in his impudencie, and voidnes of shame.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, IV. (1605), 406. In whom a man might perceiue what small difference in the working there is, betwixt a simple voidnesse of euill, and a iudiciall habite of vertue.
5. The state or condition of being legally void; nullity.
1883. Sat. Rev., LV. 16 June, 755/2. The existing system of prohibition (which, despite the quibble about voidness and voidableness, has notoriously been recognized in England from time immemorial) is consistent, homogeneous, and, what is more, constructed with a view to the prevention of obvious and dangerous disorders.
