[f. FOOLHARDY + -NESS.] The quality of being foolhardy.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, xxiv. 7. My iolifte & fole hardynes.
1401. Political Poems (Rolls), II. 55.
| By woodnesse and foolhardinesse | |
| for heresie to dien. |
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 440.
| Full hardines, quhilk neuir had ȝit gude chance, | |
| Cumis alway of ill considderance. |
a. 1677. Barrow, Wks. (1686), III. xxxiv. 377. The Fear of Men … doth involve the wildest Boldness, and most rash Fool-hardiness in the World, pushing us into the most desperate Adventures that can be.
1874. Morley, Compromise (1886), 229. To be willing to make such changes too frequently, even when they are possible, is foolhardiness.
