Forms: see SURE a. [f. SURE a. + -NESS.] The quality or condition of being sure.
† 1. Security, safety; steadfastness, stability. Obs.
c. 1412. Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 5031. & hym sueth gladnesse Which þat of pees conseilith þe suernesse.
1412–20. Lydg., Chron. Troy, III. 5526. Far-wel oure helpe, now Hector is goon, In whom þe surnes of vs euerychon Was wont to reste.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, I. cxxvi. (1869), 67. The surenesse of the armure.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 123. That han betymes passid this thurghfare, And kowde therin fynde no surenesse.
c. 1460. Oseney Reg., 13. With þe surenesse [orig. sanctiore] of þis present letters we make sure [etc.].
a. 1500–34. Cov. Corpus Chr. Pl., II. 238. That in this lande here he schuld make surenes, And he to be cawlid the King of Pes.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VI., 129. Admonishyng hym … not to myngle … his safetie and surenesse, with the vnstablenesse and vnsuretie of his newe alye.
1573. Satir. Poems Reform., xl. 30. Quhat surenes fand the Bischopis halynes Into Dumbartane?
1650. T. B[ayley], Worcester’s Apoph., To Rdr. [Like] the man who went to search after the surenesse of the foundation when his house was all on fire.
1666. T. Watson, Godly mans Pict., 96. The Promises are comfortable: 1 For their sureness…. 2 For their suitableness.
† b. To the more or for (more) sureness: to make sure, to be on the safe side, so that there shall be no doubt. Obs.
c. 1450. Godstow Reg., 192. To the more surenesse, this charter is made endented.
1612. T. Taylor, Comm. Titus iii. 2 (1619), 575. How often for surenes hath the Lord threatned [etc.].
1668. Marvell, Corr., Wks. (Grosart), II. 253. I write these few words in the Post-house, for surenesse that my letter be not too late.
1679. Hist. Jetzer, 10. M. Magdalene, who devoutly gather’d the Blood that dropt from his wounds as he hung there, and for sureness took up the Earth with it.
a. 1714. Sharp, Serm. Exod. xx. 8, Wks. 1754, IV. 220. They were in doubt which was the right day … and therefore, for sureness, they would keep both.
a. 1728. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Fossils (1729), I. 118. He diverted himself … with the Speculation of the Seed of Coral; and, as for more sureness he repeats it, the Sperme of Coral.
2. a. Objective certainty. † Phr. in or for sureness, for certain, surely, certainly.
c. 1485. Digby Myst., Convers. St. Paul, 31. I-schall aske of them in suernes, To persue.
a. 1500. Ratis Raving, 3013. For suernes thai wald neuer wyrk.
c. 1530. Judic. Urines, II. ii. 13 b. Yet is ther no suernys of amendyng.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., Contents, A time beyond which the world shall not hold out, may be fastned on, from the sureness of the bodies rising again.
1849. M. Arnold, Poems, To Gipsy Child by Sea-shore, 42. That sure pain Whose sureness grey-haired scholars hardly learn!
1871. E. F. Burr, Ad Fidem, xii. 228. Does it follow that they [sc. miracles] have never occurred, or even that they cannot be known with scientific sureness to have occurred?
b. Subjective certainty.
a. 1572. Knox, Hist. Ref., Wks. 1846, I. 26. Faith is a suirness.
1584. Lodge, Hist. Forbonius & Prisceria, in Alarum, etc. G iij. I shall ouerpasse the sorrow by surenesse.
1641. Smectymnuus, Vind. Answ., § 13. 129. You give us no ground of your surenesse.
1890. Spectator, 8 March, 340/2. A strong affection and sureness of faith.
1908. Edin. Rev., April, 345. Memoranda collected … gave him the sureness needed for his gigantic undertaking.
3. The quality of being unfailing or unerring; trustworthiness or accuracy of aim, perception, etc.
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, xli. III. 128. The detection of this blunder in the two veterans, who prided themselves on the sureness and quickness of their sight.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. xvii. 316. The chamois … with its … admirable sureness of foot.
1883. Manch. Guard., 3 Nov., 7/4. That network of agencies which in England is, with characteristic slowness, but we hope also with characteristic sureness, developing in to a real system of national education.
1912. J. L. Myres, Dawn of Hist., viii. 181. An artistic style … able to draw inspiration from other styles and methods, without losing the sureness of its own touch.
