ostensibility
(ɒstɛnsɪˈbɪlɪtɪ)
[f. ostensible + -ity.]
The quality of being ostensible; † conspicuousness, ostentation (obs.).
| 1775 S. J. Pratt Liberal Opin. xxvii. (1783) I. 181 People of low education, and little mind, were always capable of a silly ostensibility, that sooner or later brought them into disgrace. 1795 Hist. in Ann. Reg. 117 He studiously avoided ostensibility, and left to others the danger, as well as the honour, of acting an open and explicit part. |