exorbitancy
(ɛgˈzɔːbɪtənsɪ)
[f. exorbitant: see -ancy.]
The quality of being exorbitant.
1. = exorbitance 1. Now rare. Also, † an irrational opinion.
| 1621 W. Sclater Tythes (1623) 103 Exorbitancie enough from the primary rule of assignement to Parish Churches. 1649 Milton Eikon. xxvi. 468 That planetary motion, that unblamable exorbitancy. 1672 Phil. Trans. VII. 5126 To suppose..an infinite profundity of the Stellar Sphere: an Exorbitancy not to be admitted. 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. iii. iii. 265 This witty Man..hath somewhat rectified the exorbitancy of Epicurus. 1879 H. N. Hudson Hamlet 13 Frequent displays of mental exorbitancy. |
† 2. = exorbitance 2. Obs.
| 1619 W. Sclater Exp. 1 Thess. (1627) II. Ep. Ded. 4 Information of exorbitancy in some particulars of the Church. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. (1843) 29/1 The exorbitancy of the house of commons..proceeded principally from their contempt of the laws. 1658 L. Womock Exam. Tilenus 40 There are sins..as in blasphemie..wherein the act is not to be distinguished from the exorbitancie. 1670 G. H. Hist. Cardinals i. ii. 58 Any Treatise that..rebukes the Exorbitancy of their Lives. 1702 Lond. Gaz. No. 3795/3 His..zealous Endeavour to curb the Exorbitancy of France. |
3. (Cf. exorbitant A. 4). a. = exorbitance 3. † b. Disposition to exceed one's rights; excessive greed or rapacity; an instance of this (obs.).
| a 1638 Mede Wks. (1672) Gen. Pref., I..am..far from interpreting your Love Exorbitancy. 1653 A. Wilson Jas. I 102 The exorbitancy of the new buildings about the City..being a shelter for them. 1669 W. Simpson Hydrol. Chym. 81 Gout..roused up from the exorbitancy of a spurious acid ferment in the ultimate digestion. 1674 Govt. Tongue vii. (1684) 168 This monstrous exorbitancy of discourse. 1722 Sewel Hist. Quakers Pref. (1795) I. 14 The exorbitancies to which some launched out. 1749 Numbers in Poet. Comp. 26 One can hardly imagine the Antients could have run into..Exorbitancies in protracting their Rhythms. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) II. 363 The exorbitancy of the Romans swallowing up their neighbouring nations one after another. 1783 Burke Rep. Affairs India Wks. 1842 II. 23 A system of restraint on the exorbitancies of their servants. 1791 W. Maxwell in Boswell Johnson (1831) I. 381 Who knows any real sufferings [from love] more than from the exorbitancy of any other passion? 1803 Wellington in Gurw. Disp. II. 386 From the exorbitancy of that [duty] in particular levied at Collun. 1877 Morley Crit. Misc. Ser. ii. 375 Divested of all the exorbitancies of his spirit and his style. |