[f. EXORBITANT: see -ANCY.] The quality of being exorbitant.
1. = EXORBITANCE 1. Now rare. Also, † an irrational opinion.
1621. W. Sclater, Tythes (1623), 103. Exorbitancie enough from the primary rule of assignement to Parish Churches.
1649. Milton, Eikon., xxvi. 468. That planetary motion, that unblamable exorbitancy.
1672. Phil. Trans., VII. 5126. To suppose … an infinite profundity of the Stellar Sphere: en Exorbitancy not to be admitted.
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., III. iii. 265. This witty Man … hath somewhat rectified the exorbitancy of Epicurus.
1879. H. N. Hudson, Hamlet, 13. Frequent displays of mental exorbitancy.
† 2. = EXORBITANCE 2. Obs.
1619. W. Sclater, Exp. 1 Thess. (1627), II. Ep. Ded. 4. Information of exorbitancy in some particulars of the Church.
1632. Massinger, City Madam, I. i. (1658), 2. ’Tis strange my Master in his wisdom can Give the reins to such exorbitancie.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. (1843), I. 29/1. The exorbitancy of the house of commons … proceeded principally from their contempt of the laws.
1658. Bp. L. Womock, Exam. Tilenus, 40. There are sins … as in blasphemie … wherein the act is not to be distinguished from the exorbitancie.
1670. G. H., Hist. Cardinals, I. II. 58. Any Treatise that checks and rebukes the Exorbitancy of their Lives.
1702. Lond. Gaz., No. 3795/3. His … zealous Endeavour to curb the Exorbitancy of France.
3. (Cf. EXORBITANT A. 4). a. = EXORBITANCE 3. † b. Disposition to exceed one’s rights; excessive greed or rapacity; an instance of this (obs.).
a. 1638. Mede, Wks. (1672), Gen. Pref. I … am … far from interpreting your Love Exorbitancy.
1653. A. Wilson, Jas. I., 102. The exorbitancy of the new buildings about the City … being a shelter for them.
1669. W. Simpson, Hydrol. Chym., 81. Gout … roused up from the exorbitancy of a spurious acid ferment in the ultimate digestion.
1674. Govt. Tongue, vii. (1684), 168. This monstrous exorbitancy of discourse.
1722. Sewel, Hist. Quakers, Pref. (1795), I. 14. The exorbitancies to which some launched out.
1749. Numbers in Poet. Comp., 26. One can hardly imagine the Antients could have run into … Exorbitancies in protracting their Rhythms.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 363. The exorbitancy of the Romans swallowing up their neighbouring nations one after another.
1783. Burke, Rep. Affairs India, Wks. 1842, II. 23. A system of restraint on the exorbitancies of their servants.
1791. W. Maxwell, in Boswell, Johnson (1831), I. 381. Who knows any real sufferings [from love] more than from the exorbitancy of any other passion?
1803. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., II. 386. From the exorbitancy of that [duty] in particular levied at Collun.
1877. Morley, Crit. Misc., Ser. II. 375. Macaulay, divested of all the exorbitancies of his spirit and his style, would have been a Samson shorn of the locks of his strength.
