[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The quality of being fleet.
1. Swiftness.
1625. Quarles, Sion’s Sonn., vii. 7.
| Behold the fleetnesse of his nimble feet; | |
| The Roe-bucke and the Hart were ne’re so fleet. |
1767. W. L. Lewis, Statius’ Thebaid, V. 1002.
| But Fame unrivall’d in the dusty Course, | |
| In Fleetness far outstrips the vig’rous Horse. |
1856. Stanley, Sinai & Pal., viii. 321. The fleetness of foot, with which, ‘when the hand of the Lord was upon him,’ he outran the chariot of Ahab.
2. Transitoriness.
1727. Bailey, vol. II., Fleetness, fleeting Quality.
1863. I. Williams, Baptistery, II. xxiv. (1874), 95.
| And all their notes of sweetness | |
| Are singing of our fleetness,— | |
| Are of our fleetness sighing, | |
| And singing of our dying. |
