[f. as prec. + -NESS.]
1. The state of being illumined by the sun, or full of sunshine.
1611. [see SUNNAGE].
1823. Moore, Mem. (1853), IV. 146. In the sweet valley of Chitway, enjoying all the sunniness and leafiness that still lingers around us.
1860. F. Galton, in Vac. Tour., 430. The relative sunniness of different places on the calculated path of total eclipse.
† 2. Sunburn, tan. Obs. rare.
1753. Richardson, Grandison, I. xxxvi. (1754), 254. His face is overspread with a manly sunniness (I want a word) that shews he has been in warmer climates than England.
3. fig. Brightness of aspect, feeling, manner, etc.
1837. Beddoes, Lett., in Poems (1851), p. ciii. The chapters in hand requiring a light-hearted sunniness of style.
1880. Disraeli, Endym., III. 65. He did not greet her with that mantling sunniness of aspect which was natural to him when they met.
1880. ‘Vernon Lee,’ Italy, III. i. 63. A certain sincerity and sunniness of nature.
