[f. BLUNT a. + -NESS.]
† 1. Dullness of wit, stupidity. Obs.
1483. Cath. Angl., 35. A Bluntnes, ebitudo.
1623. Cockeram, Hebetude, bluntnesse, dulnesse.
2. Obtuseness or dullness of point or edge.
1530. Palsgr., 199/1. Bluntnesse of any edged toole.
1655. Gurnall, Chr. in Arm., xiii. (1669), 92/2. His worldly employments do not turn the edge of his affections, & leave a bluntness upon his spirit.
1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., III. xxxi. 243. Rounded with a fine bone which causes a sufficient bluntness or rolling edge.
3. Rudeness, absence of delicacy or refinement; abruptness of manner or address, curtness.
1605. Shaks., Lear, II. ii. 102. Who hauing beene praisd for bluntnesse, doth affect A saucy roughnes.
a. 1674. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., III. X. 36. The bluntness and positiveness of the few words he spoke.
1751. Fielding, Amelia, Wks. 1775, X. 124. Bluntness, or rather rudeness, as it commonly deserves to be called, is not always so much a mark of honesty as it is taken to be.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple (1863), 237. The bluntness with which he used to contradict and assert his disbelief of Captain Kearneys narratives.