[ad. Fr. ferocité, ad. L. ferōcitāt-em, f. ferox FEROCIOUS.] The quality or state of being ferocious; habitual fierceness or savageness; an instance of the same.
1606. Warner, Alb. Eng., XIV. lxxxvi. (1612), 355. With such perseuerant hatred and ferocitie.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, II. iv. Grimalkin, who, though the youngest of the feline family, degenerates not in ferosity from the elder branches of her house, and though inferior in strength, is equal in fierceness to the nobler tiger himself.
1793. Burke, Policy of Allies, Wks. 1842, I. 594. Such their ferocity, their arrogance, their mutinous spirit, their habits of defying everything human and divine, that no engagement would hold with them for three months.
1831. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), II. 213. These ferocities, and Sibylline frenzies.
1851. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., II. III. I. xiv. § 28. It [fear] is always joined with ferocity.
