[f. as prec. + -NESS.]
† 1. The state or quality of being contradictory; self-contradictoriness, inconsistency. Obs.
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., 339. This reading … generally obtains, notwithstanding its seeming harshness and contradictiousness.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., I. v. 653. To give an account of that supposed contradictiousness in the idea and attributes of God.
2. Disposition to contradict or oppose.
1867. Spectator, 20 July, 798. There was a captiousness and contradictiousness about Lord Cranborne’s old parliamentary style.
1884. G. Allen, Philistia, II. 228. Such is the natural contradictiousness and vexatious disposition of the British parent.
