[f. as prec. + -NESS.]
1. The quality of being wicked; wicked character or disposition; depravity, iniquity, immorality.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter xxx. 13. Luf kelis and wickidnes brennys.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), ix. 33. Þai er … full of all maner of wickedness and malice.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, III. ii. 113. Clau. Disloyall? Bast. The word is too good to paint out her wickednesse.
1625. Bacon, Ess., Truth (Arb.), 501. The Wickednesse of Falshood, and Breach of Faith.
1703. De Foe, More Reform., 12. What tho’ the Baudy runs thro’ all he Writ, The more the Wickedness, the more the Wit.
a. 1768. Secker, Serm. (1770), I. ix. 211. As all this arose from Infirmity, not Wickedness, they met with an easy Pardon.
1834. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Steam Excurs. The unfortunate little victim … receiving sundry thumps … for having the wickedness to tell a story.
1873. ‘Ouida,’ Pascarèl, II. i. So I reasoned in the wickedness of my heart.
2. Wicked action or conduct; iniquity as committed or perpetrated; occas. wicked speech or statement.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1090. Mistrauing þan had he son, Þat he sum wikcudnes hade don.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, iii. (Andreas), 179. Þat I sic vikitnes Wald with hyr do and foulnes.
c. 1393. Chaucer, Mariage, 7. I dar not writen of hyt noo wikkednesse.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, III. 344. Causer of wer, wyrkar of wykitnes.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 23. Conteinyng bothe the Heresies already condemned, and also newe errours, and great wickednes.
1567. Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.), 72. That we suld leif our wickitnes, And fle vaine warldlie appetyte.
1605. Shaks., Lear, III. vii. 98 (Qo. 1). Ile neuer care what wickednes I doe, If this man come to good.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. vi. 27. For Calamity arriving [sic] from great wickedness, the best men have the least Pitty.
1827. Southey, Hist. Penins. War, II. 65. The scene of an action … infamous to the French for the enormous wickedness with which they abused their victory.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xiii. III. 367. Persons who think that there is no excess of wickedness for which courage and ability do not atone.
1901. Besant, London in 18th Cent., 237. The greatest wickedness that any man could commit, in his eyes, was not to pay his debts.
b. (with a and pl.) A piece of wickedness; a wicked act or proceeding.
a. 1325. Prose Psalter, lxxxviii[i]. 32. Y shal uisite in chasteing her wickednesses.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems, De Prof., 99. Ther wikkednessis yif thow do Observe, Tabyde thy doom yt were to hard a schour.
1535. Coverdale, Amos i. 13. For thre and foure wickednesses of Edom I wil not spare him.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., I. 26. He fed his eyes by being a spectator of those wickednesses, which Nero only commanded to be done.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1768), III. 47. So premeditated and elaborate a wickedness.
1817. Southey, Lett. to Editor of Courier, 17 March. That it might be published surreptitiously at any future time, was a wickedness of which I never dreamt.
1859. Geo. Eliot, Adam Bede, xli. I’d sooner do a wickedness as I could suffer for by myself, than ha’ brought her to do wickedness.
† 3. Poorness of spirit: cf. WICKED a.1 2 d. Obs.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XII. 280. Gif ȝhe let cowardis And vikkidnes ȝour hertis suppris.
† 4. In physical sense: Malignancy, corruption: cf. WICKED a.1 2 c. Obs. rare.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 18. Whanne þe bodi is purgid fro wickide humouris, þe wickidnes of þe mater renneþ fro þe wounde.
