[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The quality or state of being frightful. † a. The state of being filled with fright (obs.). b. The quality of causing fright; hideousness.
1621. Lady M. Wroth, Urania, 401. Her face sad, and perplexed, shewing frightfulnesse so perfectly.
1633. Bp. Hall, Hard Texts, 453. Sonne of man, when thou eastest thy meales, doe thou, in thy feeding, expresse a kinde of trembling, and quaking; and in thy drinking of water, expresse a frightfulnesse, and amazed suspition of the approach of an enemie.
1684. trans. Bonet’s Merc. Compit., IX. 333. Is Wormwood good for frightfulness?
1713. Nelson, Dr. Bull, Introd. (1840), 7. All this serveth chiefly to cover the frightfulness of mortality.
