[ad. L. exīlitāt-em, n. of quality f. exīlis EXILE a.]
1. Shrunken or attenuated condition, smallness in number or size; thinness, slenderness, meagerness.
1528. St. Papers Hen. VIII., II. 130. The Kingis revenues be brought to suche exilitie, that they suffice nat to ordinarie charges.
c. 1534. trans. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (Camden), I. 72. The place wherin thei foughte was verie streyght, and therfore commodius to the exilitee of the Romains.
1641. Prynne, Antip., 270. The exilitie and smalenesse of his learning.
1750. G. Hughes, Barbados, 41. They [Guinea worms] are exceeding long in respect to their great exility and thinness.
1779–81. Johnson, L. P., Cowley, Wks. II. 24. Subtlety … in its original import means exility of particles.
1813. J. Forsyth, Remarks on Antiq., etc. during an Excursion Italy, 382. The apparent height and the exility admired in a Gothic pillar.
1819. H. Busk, Vestriad, IV. 313. His exility of snout.
1847. in Craig.
† b. Smallness or slenderness of income or revenue; poorness, poverty. Obs.
1559. Abp. Parker, etc. in Parker’s Corresp. (1853), 100. In consideration of the exility of the bishopricks.
1562. Grindal, Lett. to Abp. Parker, Wks. (1843), 252. If by exility or decay of benefices … any arrearages be.
1651. Fuller’s Abel Rediv., Andrewes. His Majesty … (because of the exility of that Bishopricke) soon after added the Parsonage of Cheyham.
1774. Hutchins, Hist. Dorset, I. 63. The bishop of Sarum sets forth the exility of the two churches … which were not sufficient to maintain a priest each.
2. Of a sound, spirit, a woven substance, etc.: Tenuity, thinness, fine texture. Hence of immaterial things: Refinement, subtlety.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 154. The Voice or other Sound is reduced, by such passage to a great Weakness or Exility.
1647. H. More, Song of Soul, II. ii. II. xxi. This souls thin spread exility.
1751. Harris, Hermes, III. iv. Wks. (1841), 232. Bodies so exceedingly fine, that their very exility makes them susceptible of sensation.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol., xxi. § 4 (1819), 334. This extreme exility [of light] though difficult to conceive, is easy to prove.
1802. Ann. Reg., 11. The Act of Faith … is expressed … on the thinnest paper, the exility of which [etc.].
1841. D’Israeli, Amen. Lit. (1859), I. 286. [They] could not appreciate such exility of elegance, and such sublimated refinement.
1866. J. Martineau, Ess., I. 144. The extreme exility of the evidence.
b. concr. A refinement, subtlety.
1647. H. More, Poems, 111. The soul … contemns as nought unseen exilities.
