[f. prec. + -NESS.] The quality of being terrible; frightfulness, dreadfulness, awfulness.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546), T vij. The most terrible, and the laste terrible of all terriblenes.
1535. Coverdale, Deut. xxvi. 8. The Lorde … brought vs out of Egipte … with greate terryblenesse thorow tokens and wonders.
1651. Fuller, Abel Rediv. (1867), I. 257. He did not only bear the terribleness of imprisonment.
1710. Abp. Sharp, Serm. Acts. xvii. 31. Wks. 1754, VI. 188. The … majesty, and terribleness of his appearance.
1887. Smiles, Life & Labour, 431. The sadness and terribleness of some of the aspects of life.
