[f. prec. + -NESS.] The state of being aloof; withdrawal from common action or feeling; lack of sympathy.

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1642.  Rogers, Naaman, 242. Aloofenesse and carrying of things afarre off.

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1817.  Coleridge, Biogr. Lit., 153. The alienation, and, if I may hazard such an expression, the utter aloofness of the poet’s own feelings.

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1849.  Thoreau, Concord & Merr. Riv., 59. The wary independence and aloofness of his dim forest life.

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1878.  Dowden, Studies, 420. The same aloofness, the same hauteur.

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