Also 7 faitneantise. [Fr. fainéantise, f. fainéant: see prec.] ‘Do-nothing-ness’; indisposition to do anything; indifference, inactivity.
a. 1684. R. Leighton, Letter, in The Leisure Hour, XXIII. Dec. (1874), 805/2. Nor would any fatigue or [any—erased] difficulties in it have degusted me so much as our ten years fai(n)tneantise has done.
a. 1734. North, Exam. (1740), 99. If the King had, by any Faineantise or Remissness, let their Line run into Opportunities.
1822. T. L. Peacock, Maid Marian, ix. He had, besides, not only sent all King Henry’s saints about their business, or rather about their no-business, their fainéantise—but he had laid them under rigorous contribution for the purposes of his holy war.
