[ad. late L. quiēscentia: see QUIESCENT and -ENCE.] The state of being quiescent; quietness; an instance of this.
a. 1631. Donne, Lett., lxxx. Wks. (ed. Alford), VI. 397. Bless them with a satisfaction and Quiescence.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., Pref. 11. That there is no such thing in the World as an absolute quiescence?
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 137, ¶ 2. To sleep in the gloomy quiescence of astonishment.
1812. Woodhouse, Astron., xxiii. 239. The anomalous retrogradations and quiescences of the planets.
1830. Lyell, Princ. of Geol. (1875), II. II. xxx. 177. The local quiescence or dormant condition of the subterranean igneous causes.
1879. Proctor, Pleas. Ways Sc., ii. 29. The usual condition of the air … is one of motion, not of quiescence.
b. spec. in Hebrew grammar: see QUIESCE v. 2.
1828. Stuart, Elem. Heb. Lang. (1831), 54. Quiescence sometimes happens when the Evi would (by analogy) have a vowel.
1853. J. R. Wolf, Practical Heb. Gram., 112. This quiescence consists in such letters losing their consonantal power when preceded by certain vowels.
