[-NESS.] The quality or condition of being suitable; suitability; † conformity.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 425. That sutablenesse of their Law to their lawlesse lusts of Rapine and Poligamie.
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., IV. i. 388. These Grammatical Particles are here contrived to such a kind of distinct sutableness, so as each of the several kinds of them, hath a several kind of Character assigned to them.
1748. Hartley, Observ. Man, I. iv. § 6. 496. The great Suitableness of all the Virtues to each other.
1839. Hallam, Hist. Lit., III. vi. § 95. 614. The superiority of the original, except in suitableness for representation, has long been acknowledged.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 691. The suitableness of its pastures to every sort of animal.
b. With a and pl.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, II. xxix. ¶5. For a testimonie of constancie, and a sutablenes to his word.
1658. Baxter, Saving Faith, 12. The men … trie not their acts by a sutableness to the object.
1664. South, Twelve Serm., ii. (1697), II. 91. He, who creates those Sympathies, and sutablenesses of Nature,… and … brings Persons so affected together.
1709. T. Robinson, Vindic. Mosaick System, 55. Bearing such a Suitableness and Harmony with the more refined Sense … of the Soul of Man.
1880. Mrs. Whitney, Odd or Even? ii. 17. It was no use to try to carry out a fancy or a suitableness.
