Also 7 voluptousnes, -tusnesse. [f. as prec. + -NESS.] The quality of being voluptuous.
1. Addiction to sensuous pleasures; indulgence in pleasure and luxury.
1508. Fisher, 7 Penit. Ps. vi. Wks. (1876), 11. Our prophete … ferynge to offende almyghty god, syth that afore tyme he was ouercomen by his owne voluptuousnesse.
1531. Tindale, Expos. 1 John (1537), 48. Some call themselues dead, which lyue in all voluptuousnesse.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 56 b. They take your goods and spende them wickedly in pride, riot and voluptuousnes.
1614. Purchas, Pilgrimage, IV. v. (ed. 2), 365. As their liues were burthened with voluptuousnesse, so they prepared for their deaths.
1638. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 340. They delight excessively in all sorts of games and voluptuousnesse.
a. 1701. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1721), 122. No place in the World can promise the Beholder at a distance greater voluptuousness.
1782. Priestley, Corrupt. Chr., II. x. 275. Complaints of their voluptuousness are without end.
1812. G. Chalmers, Dom. Econ. Gt. Brit., 329. We became more luxurious, and, as our voluptuousness increased, our industry diminished.
1860. Adler, Prov. Poet., xv. 328. The man who was tormented by voluptuousness was declared incapable of love.
1873. Hamerton, Intell. Life, V. i. 170. Men of the English race are often grandly strong in resistance to every form of voluptuousness.
personif. 1603. J. Davies (Heref.), Extasie, Wks. (Grosart), I. 91/1. In summe shee was such as Voluptusnesse With all her coulors cannot well expresse.
1639. N. N., trans. Du Bosq’s Compl. Woman, I. 15. There are more who haunt the Schoole of Voluptousnes, then that of vertue.
transf. 1768. Woman of Honor, III. 243. I could with great voluptuousness of scorn have spit in his face.
b. The quality of expressing voluptuous ideas.
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, v. 129. The voluptuousness of Æolian poetry is not like that of Persian or Arabian art.
2. Luxuriance, luxury or refinement tending to gratify the senses or to impart sensuous pleasure.
1652. Heylin, Cosmogr., III. 11. The Countrey very plentifull of all manner of fruites, even unto voluptuousnesse.
1729. Shelvocke, Artillery, V. 354. He celebrated the Decennia with new Sorts of Games, with a new Kind of Pomp, and with the most exquisite Voluptuousness.
1800. S. & Ht. Lee, Canterb. T., IV. 380. The species of rustic voluptuousness his garden otherwise afforded.
1832. Lytton, Eugene A., I. vi. Softened by the quiet beauty and voluptuousness around him, Walter’s thoughts assumed a more gentle dye.
1893. E. F. Howe, in Voice (N. Y.), 21 Sept. We have … the desert brought into voluptuousness by the development of great irrigation enterprises.
