[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The quality or character of being supercilious; haughty contemptuousness.
a. 1656. Hales, Serm., Rom. xiv. 1, in Golden Rem. (1673), 29. It falls out oftentimes, that men offend … as much by familiarity, as by superciliousness and contempt.
1697. Collier, Ess. Mor. Subj., I. (1703), 232. To surrender these privileges up to the superciliousness of every assuming or ignorant pretender.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 87, ¶ 9. He has inflamed the opposition … by arrogance and superciliousness.
1851. Gallenga, Italy, iv. 239. Excessive spruceness, ermine-like exclusiveness and fastidiousness,… but nothing like morgue and superciliousness.
1881. W. Robertson Smith, Old Test. in Jewish Ch., xi. 326. The superciliousness, with which traditionalists declare the labours of the critics to be visionary.
