[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The fact or quality of being youthful; youthful condition or character.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, viii. 117. Should we rather graunt an euerlasting ignorance in man, than a kynd of youthfulnesse which hath learned things according to the growths thereof in ages?
1622. Mabbe, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., II. 139. He might either doe it out of youthfulnesse … or out of want.
1717. Addison, trans. Ovid’s Met., III. Wks. 1726, I. 213. With all the purple youthfulness of face, That gently blushes in the wat’ry glass.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, i. Her very small and delicate frame imparted a peculiar youthfulness to her appearance.
1898. ‘H. S. Merriman,’ Roden’s Corner, xii. 124. A complexion almost dazzling in its youthfulness and brilliancy.
