[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The state or quality of being firm.
1. Solidity, cohesion, resistance to pressure.
1653. Holcroft, Procopius, II. 53. Which encreasing by degrees, crumbled and brake the firmeness of the stones, and so loosening the Turret, down it came suddainly.
1661. Boyle, Spring of Air, III. xxxi. (1682), 82. In the short history we have publish’d of Fluidity and Firmness.
1799. Kirwan, Geol. Ess., 108. Firmness is that coherence which resists percussion, and its opposite is brittleness, or fragility.
1851. Carpenter, Man. Phys. (ed. 2), 155. One method, by which the requisite firmness and solidity are given to the animal fabric, consists in the deposition of earthy substances in the interior of such cells, by a peculiar secreting action of their own.
2. The quality of being to a large extent unmoved or immovable; fixedness, stability.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., III. i. 48.
| Make Mountaines levell, and the Continent | |
| (Wearie of solide firmenesse) melt it selfe | |
| Into the Sea. |
a. 1627. Hayward, Edw. VI. (1630), 13. Both the easinesse and firmnes [of the union] might be coniectured, for that both people are of the same language, of like habit and fashion.
1703. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. 89. The whole work seems to be endued with such absolute firmness, as if it had been design’d for Eternity.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol., viii. § 3 (1819), 86. By firmness I mean not only strength but stability.
3. The state or quality of being firm in mind; resolution, steadiness, steadfastness.
Hence, in Phrenology, the ‘bump’ or ‘organ’ supposed to indicate the possession of this quality.
1561. trans. Calvin’s Foure Serm., ii. D ij b. That constauncye and firmnes of minde.
a. 1684. Earl Roscommon, Wks. (1753), 42.
| Nor can th’ Ægyptian Patriarch blame my muse, | |
| Which for his firmness does his heat excuse. |
1741. Middleton, Cicero, I. VI. 518. Cæsar is said to have born the news of her death with an uncommon firmness.
1874. Green, Short Hist., iv. § 1. 162. Terrible, however, as were the sufferings of the English army, Edward’s firmness remained unbroken.
† b. Steadfastness of attachment to a person or cause; faithfulness, fidelity. Obs.
a. 1627. Sir J. Beaumont, To the Prince, 13.
| And in the steddy resting of the ground, | |
| Your noble firmenesse to your friend is found. |
1653. Sir E. Nicholas, in The Nicholas Papers (Camden), II. 11. Will judge of his Majesty’s affection to religion and of his firmness to his word by what he shall perform in this particular, viz. of the duke’s sudden return to Holland.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 279.
| But that thou shouldst my firmness therfore doubt | |
| To God or thee, because we have a foe | |
| May tempt it, I expected not to hear. |
4. Comm. Steadiness in price, or of prices.
1880. Globe, 5 March, 5/4. The feature in Foreign Government Securities is the firmness of Peruvian Bonds.
1883. Manch. Exam., 14 Dec., 4/1. There being little inclination to take short bills, owing to a belief that the present firmness will not last.
1890. Daily News, 16 Sept., 3/4. The outlays on behalf of this pair did not affect the firmness of Signorina and Nunthorpe, who maintained their Saturday rates.
