[f. ACTIVE a. + -NESS.] The quality of being active; agility, nimbleness, energy, diligence; = ACTIVITY 2.
1601. R. Chester, Love’s Martyr, lxvi. (1878), 96. Because in activenesse she much excelled.
1612. Warner, Albion’s England, I. iv. 12. Yea yet a Lad, for Actiuenes The world did lack his like.
1754. Edwards, Freed. Will., IV. § 3, 203. Action, when set properly in Opposition to Passive or Passivenesse is … a meer Relation; ’tis the Activeness of something on another thing.
1878. N. Amer. Rev., CXXVI. 307. Activeness in religious practices, and soundness in ethical teachings.
