[f. LAVISH a. + -NESS.]
† 1. Absence of restraint, recklessness. Obs.
c. 1477. Caxton, Jason, 141. And [Eson] shewde how he wolde punisshe his sone Iason for the lauesshenes of his body.
1553. Brende, trans. Q. Curtius, iv. 45 b. Ponishing with losse of lief, the lavesnes of the tounge.
1555. Eden, Decades, 72, marg. Hurt of lauyshenes of the tonge.
1649. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., II. Ad Sec. xii. 57. Lest as it happens in sudden joyes, the lavishnesse of his spirit should transport him to intemperance.
2. Unlimited bounty; extravagance, prodigality.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. vii. 12. Riches … First got with guile,… And after spent with pride and lavishness.
1623. Bingham, Xenophon, Comp. Rom. & Mod. Wars, X 3. Lest it might be consumed by their Cabin-mates in lauishnesse and idle expences.
1663. Blair, Autobiog., vii. (1848), 95. My foolish lavishness gaue to his servant two Jacobuses.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 53, ¶ 13. They … scatter with a kind of wild desperation and affected lavishness.
1857. Ruskin, Pol. Econ. Art, 12. The lavishness of pride.
1859. R. F. Burton, Centr. Afr., in Jrnl. Geog. Soc., XXIX. 213. The wondrous lavishness of Nature.
1874. Green, Short Hist., vii. § 5. 389. The lavishness of a new wealth united with a lavishness of life, a love of beauty, of colour, of display, to revolutionize English dress.
