[f. UNEVEN a.]
1. Inequality, discrepancy, difference.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., IX. iii. (Tollem. MS.). Solstitium is moste uneuennesse of day and nyȝte.
1622. Malynes, Anc. Law-Merch., 487. Hee findeth twentie two or sixtie six peeces or thereabouts, because of the vneuennesse of the sheyre.
1659. Gentl. Calling (1660), 18. The great unevenness that is … between Gentlemen and their Inferiors.
1884. Bower & Scott, De Bary’s Phaner., 44. The subsequent various unevenness of height … arises through the growth of the cells.
2. The quality or fact of being uneven in form.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., IV. iii. (1495), e vj b/1. Roughnesse is not elles but an vneuynnesse in an harde thynge. Ibid., iv. e viij/2. Contrary humours werke contraryousnes and vneuynnesse with roughnes in the vtter parte of the body.
1560. Whitehorne, Arte Warre (1588), 49 b. Also the vneuennesse of the ground saueth them, for that euery litle hillocke, or high place,… letteth the shotte thereof.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., III. (1586), 115. His cheekebones would be euen and small, for … the vneuennes of the Cheekes will make him headstrong.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 51. Hils of stupendious height and vneuennesse to ascend.
a. 1688. Cudworth, Immut. Mor. (1731), 200. We plainly observe much … Unevenness and Inequality in the Lines, and Bluntness in the Angles.
1772. Ann. Reg., Nat. Hist., 82/2. Which extreme agitation and whirling, I presume, must be owing to the unevenness of the rocky bottom.
1853. Markham, Skoda’s Auscult., 3. The finger must be always used whenever, through unevenness of the surface, the pleximeter cannot be well applied.
1880. Blackw. Mag., Feb., 243/1. The painful unevenness of the principal roadways.
b. An instance of this; an inequality; a rough or rugged part, place, or feature.
1597. A. M., trans. Guillemeau’s Fr. Chirurg., 12 b/2. If there remayne anye small splinter thereone, or other vnevennes.
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., 297. To phansy one and the same Hill for some little unevennesses in it to be more then one.
1680. Tides (MS. Bodl. Add. A. 202), fol. 3. In deep Rivers the surface conceales these unevenesses.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Filing, The … File … serves to take off the Unevennesses of the Work, left by the Hammer, in Forging.
1753. Phil. Trans., XLVIII. 88. An horizontal thin edge, which scooped up and carried off the little unevennesses of the turfy ground.
1849. Eastwick, Dry Leaves, 140. There was not the slightest jag or unevenness—a tolerable proof of the sharpness of the sword.
c. In various figurative uses.
1636. B. Jonson, Discoveries, Wks. (1641), 98. They would not have it run without rubs, as if that stile were more strong and manly, that stroke the eare with a kind of unevenesse.
1652. Gaule, Magastrom., 255. Saturne was pressed with unevennesse or roughnesse, either in leaping or speaking.
1707. Reflex. upon Ridicule, 319. The whimsical Unevenness of some People ruins the pleasure of Conversation.
1779. Johnson, L. P., Dryden, Wks. II. 427. Such is the unevenness of his compositions, that [etc.].
1805. Med. Jrnl., XIV. 395. The unevenness of disposition, the convulsive sobs and strong paroxysms of weeping.
1866. Southern Presbyterian Rev., XVI. Oct., 162. A pecuniary compensation to the master throws the slave’s character as property into the scale against his life, and we doubt not, often occasions an unevenness of justice.
1882. L. Keith, Alasnam’s Lady, III. 105. Di hardly noticed the unevenness of her mood.
† 3. Unfairness, injustice. Obs.
a. 1470. H. Parker, Dives & Pauper (W. de W., 1496), 293/1. Goodes of this worlde ben called rychesses of uneuenesse and of wyckednesse.
