[f. as prec. + -NESS.]
1. The quality of being endless.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 8129. Ffor if endlesnes any end moght hald, Þan war it endlesnes unproperly cald.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Infinité, endlesnesse.
1601. Deacon & Walker, Spirits & Divels, 47. There would be a progresse in endlesnesse.
a. 1656. Hales, Gold. Rem. (1688), 382. This dispute for its endlessness was like the Mathematical Line.
1852. Robertson, Lect. (1858), ii. 181. Bewildering the eye with the feeling of endlessness.
2. concr. Something that has no end.
a. An infinite or everlasting existence. b. Something indefinitely extended or lengthened; an infinite space, an interminable length.
a. 1631. Donne, Serm., clvii. VI. 258. God hath provided us an endlessness in the world to come.
1820. L. Hunt, Indicator, No. 26 (1822), I. 205. Any thing in the starry endlessness of existence.
1864. Lowell, Fireside Trav., 6. Fancy decorates him with an endlessness of airy pigtail.
