[f. as prec. + -NESS.]
† 1. The state or condition of being curved or crooked; crookedness, wryness. Obs. rare.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 534/2. Wrongnesse, of werke,… curvitas. Ibid. (c. 1475), 433/2 (K.). Ryth, with owtyn wrongnesse, rectus.
2. Want of correctness or exactness; unsuitability or inappropriateness to a desired purpose or end; faultiness, error.
1726. Butler, Serm., 306. There was a Probability, if he could see the whole Reference of the Parts appearing wrong to the general Design, that this would destroy the Appearance of Wrongness and Disproportion.
1796. Coleridge, Biog. Lit. (1847), II. 365. Though not right in itself, it may become right by the greater wrongness of the only alternative—the remaining in neediness and uncertainty.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., II. iii. This is indeed a time when right Education is, as nearly as may be, impossible: however, in degrees of wrongness there is no limit.
1871. Ruskin, Fors Clav., v. 10. The Botanical lecturer was, to the extremity of wrongness, wrong.
1897. Westm. Gaz., 4 Sept., 2/1. Her gown, even her gloves—everything that could be wrong was wrong, with the worst of all wrongness.
3. The character or quality of being morally wrong or wrongful; injustice, wrongfulness.
In frequent use from c. 1870.
1833. Chalmers, Const. Man (1834), I. ii. 100. Malice, envy, falsehood, injustice, irrespective of their wrongness [etc.].
1843. Miall, in Nonconf., III. 1. As if a man’s sense of rightness and wrongness were nothing.
1851. H. Spencer, Soc. Statics, x. § 1. 128. To determine the rightness or wrongness of certain actions.
1881. B. W. Richardson, in Gentl. Mag., CCL. 164. When nature … is … chastising us right and left for our wrongness, it is no time to sit at else.
4. a. A wrong bent, tendency or inclination. rare.
1736. Butler, Anal., II. v. 203. The Wrongnesses within themselves which the best complain of, and endeavour to amend.
1799. W. Gilpin, Serm., x. 119. What wrongnesses do such thoughts produce … in our tempers, in our behaviour!
b. A wrongful, unfair or faulty act or action; a wrong, injustice.
1856. Faber, Creator & Creature, III. iv. (1858), 457. All our wants … and all our wrongnesses carry their manifold burdens to God’s fidelity.
