[f. EXPRESS a. + -NESS.] The quality or state of being express; clearness, definiteness, exactness.
1645. J. Goodwin, Innoc. Triumph., 21. It was nothing but what in expressness and plainness of words was required of them.
a. 1680. Glanvill, Serm., ix. (1681), 361. Heathens … had not the knowledge of God’s law … in the fulness and expressness of it.
1877. ‘H. A. Page,’ De Quincey, I. i. 3. What he said of Lamb may with far greater expressness be applied to himself.
