[See VERDANT a. and -ANCY.]
1. The quality, condition or character of being verdant; greenness.
1631. May, trans. Barclay’s Mirr. Mindes, I. 39. But the greatest delight is, that soe faire a verdancy is almost distinguished into diuerse colours. Ibid., 100. England abounding in rich pastures … doth euery where delight the eyes of the beholders with a most beautifull verdancy.
1882. Gd. Words, 608. Yellow freckles in some leaves may bestrew a surface of unfaded verdancy.
1888. Harper’s Mag., July, 220. We see … the same wonderful varieties of verdancy.
† b. transf. Freshness of appearance. Obs.–1
1678. Norris, Coll. Misc. (1699), 368. Had not the Youth and Verdancy of her Face contradicted the ripeness of her Discoursings, you would have thought her well in years.
2. fig. Innocence, inexperience; rawness, simplicity.
1849. W. S. Mayo, Kaloolah, xxxvii. True, in the verdancy of youthful sentiment, many a one has shrunk from the profane association of ruby lips with the processes of mastication and deglutition.
1863. Baily’s Mag., Jan., 358. Alas for my verdancy!
