[f. LAX a. + -NESS.] The quality of being lax; laxity: a. in physical senses.
1634. T. Johnson, trans. Parey’s Chirurg., XXVI. xlii. (1678), 658. Cold Waters or Baths … help the laxness of the bowels.
1669. Holder, Elem. Speech, 161. It is requisite that the Tympanum be tense…; otherwise the laxness of that Membrane will … damp the sound.
1681. Glanvill, Sadducismus, I. (1682), 155. Like some Body passing through an over-large or wide hole, where it cannot stick by reason of the laxness of the passage.
1718. Quincy, Compl. Disp., 6. By the greater laxness of its Contexture it will not lie in so little room.
1774. Garden, in Phil. Trans., LXV. 105. This carina … is very distinguishable … by its thinness, its apparent laxness.
b. in moral or intellectual senses.
1676. W. Hubbard, Happiness of People, Pref. Too much rigidness on the one hand, or laxness on the other.
1715. Wodrow Corr. (1845), II. 96. The universal laxness of the age.
1841. Elphinstone, Hist. Ind., I. 51. The laxness, confusion, and barbarism which pervade this branch of the law.
1843. Thackeray, Ravenswing, vii. Deploring the dreadful immorality which … arose in consequence of their laxness.
