[f. as prec. + -NESS.]
1. The state or condition of being sincere, honest, or just; equity or justness in respect of principle or practice; upright quality or conduct; moral integrity or rectitude.
1541. Elyot, Image Gov., xii. 22. He loued syncerytie, vulgarly called vprightnesse.
1571. Act 13 Eliz., c. 11 § 2. Any … Subjectes using upryghtnes and trueth in the barrelling of such Fishe.
1591. Savile, Tacitus, Agricola, 242. Agricola … caryed himselfe easily with great vprightnes and iustice.
1628. Wither, Brit. Rememb., VII. 1553. They of my uprightnesse judge amisse.
1668. Owen, Indwelling Sin, vi. 72. Accordingly his design is to walk before God, and his frame is sincerity and uprightness therein.
1736. Butler, Anal., I. v. 92. Those who preserve their Uprightness … raise themselves to a more secure State of Virtue.
1766. Amory, Buncle (1770), III. 210. A canted uprightness and seeming piety.
1820. Shelley, Liberty, vii. Many a deed of terrible uprightness By thy sweet love was sanctified.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xi. III. 60. Veracity, uprightness, and manly boldness were then, as now, qualities eminently English.
1879. R. K. Douglas, Confucianism, iii. 72. The Sage … maintains a perfect uprightness and pursues the heavenly way without the slightest deflection.
b. Const. of (conduct, etc.).
1560. Bible, 1 Kings iii. 6. He walked … in vprightnes of heart with thee.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 22. Modestie of life and uprightnesse of manners.
1592. Chettle, Kind-harts Dr., A 4. Diuers of worship haue reported his vprightnes of dealing.
1644. Milton, Divorce (ed. 2), II. iv. The uprightnesse of his ways.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxvii. 152. Cleared by the Uprightnesse of his own Intention.
1775. Adair, Amer. Ind., Ded. The uprightness of my intentions as to the information here given.
1795. Gentl. Mag., 543/1. Integrity of heart and uprightness of intention.
1831. Sir J. Sinclair, Corr., etc., II. 393. [He] was distinguished by … great uprightness of conduct.
2. The state or character of being erect, vertical, or upright; erect or vertical attitude; erectness.
1645. Waller, To Chloris, Poems 180. So the fayre tree … In stormes from that uprightnesse swerves.
1706. Stevens, Span. Dict., Derechura, straightness, uprightness.
1782. V. Knox, Ess., lxxix. (1819), II. 114. The uprightness of the pilaster.
c. 1815. Jane Austen, Persuasion, vi. Mrs. Croft … had a squareness, uprightness, and vigour of form.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xix. (1856), 143. The poor things had lost their uprightness.
1889. Pall Mall G., 9 March, 7/1. The rigid uprightness of his collars.
