[f. BAD a. + -NESS.]
1. Inferior or deficient quality; poor condition; incorrectness, faultiness; invalidity.
1539. Househ. Ord., in Thynne, Animadv., Introd. 34. To make relation thereof at the Greencloth of the badnesse of the stuff.
1611. Bible, Gen. xli. 19. Kine … leane fleshed, such as I neuer saw in all the land of Egypt for badnesse.
1757. Burke, Abridgm. Eng. Hist., Wks. X. 506. The clergy also took advantage of the badness of his title.
1825. Cobbett, Rur. Rides, 8. Nothing can more strongly prove the badness of the times.
1884. Ld. Blackburn, in Law Rep., IX. Appeal 620. The supposed badness of the plea.
2. Evil quality or condition; wickedness, depravity; dangerousness, noxiousness, adverseness.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XII. 49. Þe bewte of hir body in badnesse [v.r. baddenesse] she dispended.
1605. Shaks., Lear, III. v. 9. A reprouable badnesse in himselfe.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), I. xxvii. 189. Vilely suspicious … from the badness of his own heart.
Mod. Forced to retreat by the badness of the weather.
