ˈdissoluteness
[f. as prec. + -ness.]
The quality of being dissolute (in various senses).
† 1. Remissness, negligence, carelessness. Obs.
| 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 97 She chargeth Anthonie with dissolutenesse in duetie. Ibid. 356 This our dissolutenesse and negligence. 1619 W. Sclater Exp. 1 Thess. (1630) 558 Our dissoluteness hath beene too palpable, in praying God's blessing vpon our endeuours. |
† 2. Absence or abandonment of restraint; wantonness, excess, extravagance. Obs.
| 1580 J. Hatcher in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. i. III. 32 note, Which requireth rather diligence in study, then dissoluteness in plays. 1667 Marvell Corr. cciii. Wks. 1872–5 II. 401 The dissoluteness of grief, the prodigality of sorrow. 1690 Norris Beatitudes (1692) 51 All manner of odd Postures and Gestures up to the height of an Antick Dissoluteness. |
3. Looseness of manners and morals; licentiousness, profligacy.
| 1549 Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. Rev. viii. (R.) A..whyppe, whiche shoulde scourge and punyshe the christendome fallyng into synne and dyssolutenes. 1603 Florio Montaigne ii. xii. (1632) 244 The dissolutenesse of the Prelates and people of those dayes. 1729 G. Shelvocke Artillery iii. 170 People who would spend their lives in Debauchery and Dissoluteness. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 456 The most dissolute cavaliers stood aghast at the dissoluteness of the emancipated precisian. |