neutrality
(njuːˈtrælɪtɪ)
Also 5–7 newtral(l)-.
[ad. F. neutralité (14th c.), or med.L. neutrālitas, f. neutrālis neutral a.: see -ity.]
1. (With the.) The neutral party in any dispute or difference of opinion; the neutral powers during a war († also pl.). Now only Hist.
| 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. ccxlix, The threfold governance in the chirche, that is to wete, of Eugenye, of the counseyll, and of the neutralyte. 1599 Hayward 1st Pt. Hen. IV 25 The Archbishop of Canterbury, and certaine others of the neutrality,..perswaded the king to come to a treaty with the lordes. 1711 Lond. Gaz. No. 4933/1 The Troops of the Neutrality, that were in Silesia, are separated. 1781 Cowper Lett. Wks. 1837 XV. 73 And as to the neutralities, I really think the Russian virago an impertinent puss for meddling with us. 1827 Scott Napoleon IV. 253 The association of the Northern States in 1780, known by the name of the armed Neutrality. |
2. a. A neutral attitude between contending parties or powers; abstention from taking any part in a war between other states.
| 1494 Fabyan Chron. vii. 612 Some countres vphelde that one [pope], and some that other, so that there were allowyd none of theym both, and that was called the newtralytie. 1571 Reg. Privy Council Scot. II. 88 Thinking be thair newtralitie and baklying to be welcum to quhatsumevir party beis victour. 1601 Ld. Mountjoy Let. in Moryson Itin. (1617) ii. 143 No better then neutralitie is to be expected from those that are best affected. 1672 R. Montagu in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.) I. 517 The ill answers this Court has received from Spain to their proposition of a neutrality. 1710 Lond. Gaz. No. 4669/4 The Neutrality which is to be observed by the Northern Crowns. 1831 Sir J. Sinclair Corr. II. 222 What..the country would prefer, is a war between France and England, and the advantages of a lucrative neutrality. 1874 Green Short Hist. vii. §6. 405 England set aside the balanced neutrality of Elizabeth. |
b. The state or condition of being on neither side or inclined neither way; absence of decided views, feeling, or expression; indifference.
| 1561 J. Daus tr. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573) 58 b, The lothsomenes which God conceaueth of this newtralitie or warmnes. 1600 E. Blount tr. Conestaggio A 2 Those Readers that can iudge of the truth of a historie and the newtrallitie of the writer. 1665 Glanvill Scepsis Sci. i. 15 The grey heads of Reverend Antiquity have been content to sit down here in profest Neutrality. 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 89 ¶9 That no part of life be spent in a state of neutrality or indifference. 1788 Gibbon Decl. & F. xlvii. IV. 573 On a subject which engrossed the thoughts..of men, it was difficult to preserve an exact neutrality. 1871 Geo. Eliot Middlem. xxiii, [He] looked before him with as complete a neutrality as if he had been a portrait by a great master. |
c. The neutral character of a place during a war.
| 1745 P. Thomas Jrnl. Anson's Voy. 297 Why the Neutrality of their Ports should be violated. 1808 Wellington in Gurw. Desp. (1837) IV. 205 The Russian Admiral..would claim the neutrality of the port of Lisbon. 1833 M. Scott Tom Cringle xix, He will never venture to infract the neutrality of the waters surely. |
3. a. An intermediate state or condition, not clearly one thing or another.
| 1570 J. Dee Math. Pref. iv b, A meruaylous newtralitie haue these thinges Mathematicall, and also a straunge participation betwene thinges supernaturall..and thynges naturall. a 1631 Donne Anat. World Poems (1633) 238 Physitians say that wee, At best, enjoy but a neutralitie. 1743 H. Walpole Corr. (ed. 3) I. lx. 229, I wish I could make as long a letter for you, but we are in a neutrality of news. 1843 J. Martineau Chr. Life (1867) 154 A striking neutrality of treatment. |
b. Chem. The fact or state of being neutral.
| 1880 E. Cleminshaw Wurtz' Atomic The. 13 The..well-known fact of the permanence of neutrality in the double decomposition of two neutral salts. 1882 Tyndall in Longm. Mag. I. 36 Its behaviour..approaches that of elementary bodies. May it not help to explain their neutrality? |
4. a. The fact of being of the neuter gender.
| 1659 Pearson Creed ii. 271 The plurality of the verb, and the neutrality of the noun, with the distinction of their persons, speak a perfect identity of their essence. 1883 J. S. Stallybrass tr. Grimm's Teutonic Mythol. II. 883 Out of the Goth. fa{iacu}rguni's neutrality unfolded themselves both a male Fiörgynn and a female Fiörgyn. |
b. The condition of belonging to neither sex.
| 1823 Byron Juan vi. cxvii, The trouble that they [sc. women] gave, their immorality, which made him daily bless his own neutrality. |