[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The quality of being truthful.
1. Disposition to tell the truth; veracity.
1843. Miall, in Nonconf., III. Soundness of principles, and … truthfulness of spirit.
a. 1873. Wilberforce, Ch. & Empires (1874), 110. Any … writer … who … commands belief by his accuracy and truthfulness.
2. Accuracy in representing the reality; freedom from pretence or counterfeit, as in a work of art or literature.
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, xvii. It is for this rare, precious quality of truthfulness that I delight in many Dutch paintings.
1874. Green, Short Hist., vi. § 5. 324. No words could paint with so terrible a truthfulness the spirit of the New Monarchy.
1886. C. E. Pascoe, Lond. of To-day, xlii. (ed. 3), 362. English work, and especially as applied to furniture, used to have a character for truthfulness, simplicity, solidity, and comfort.
