[f. as prec. + -NESS.] Boyish or boylike quality or state.
1552. Huloet, Boyeshnes, puerilitas.
1611. Cotgr., Puerilité … boyishnesse, childishnesse … simplicitie.
a. 1791. Wesley, Husb. & Wives, v. Wks. 1811, IX. 75. Behaviour, that … savours of a kind of boyishness.
1881. J. Hawthorne, Fort. Fool, I. i. To the end of his life there was a deep fund of boyishness in him.
