rare in mod. use. [f. as prec. + -NESS.] Opposition, antagonism, contrariety; self-willed perversity.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., X. iii. (Tollem. MS.). Betwene þe qualiteis of elementes is contrariousnesse and stryf.
1482. Monk of Evesham (Arb.), 74. Contraryusnes of the wedyr.
1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps. lxii. 2. The foresayd contrariousnes, from which David riddeth himself violently.
1853. A. H. Clough, Poems & Pr. Rom. (1869), I. 373. The hardness and roughness and contrariousness of the world.
