[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The quality of being costly; sumptuousness; expensiveness.
a. 1536. Tindale, Exp. John (1537), 81. To purchase oughte of hym for ye costlynesse … of the present.
1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl., V. ix. (1675), 331. A closet, to whose costliness nothing can put limits.
1753. Hogarth, Anal. Beauty, vi. 30. The grandeur of the Eastern dress … depends as much on quantity as on costliness.
1868. M. Pattison, Academ. Org., iv. 57. The costliness of a university education.
† b. concr. Costly material; treasure. Obs. rare.
1535. Coverdale, Jer. xx. 5. All their precious and gorgeous workes, all costlynesse, and all the treasure of the kinges.
