[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The condition of being filthy.
1. In physical sense: Foulness, uncleanliness.
a. 1500. Wycket (1828), 15. Baptysme of lyke forme maketh not vs saffe, but the puttynge awaye of fylthenes of the fleshe.
1558. Bp. Watson, Sev. Sacram., xiii. 78. The prieste washeth his handes, that no outward filthynes should seclude hym from the communion.
1611. Bible, 2 Macc. ix. 9. So that the wormes rose vp out of the body of this wicked man, and whiles hee liued in sorrow and paine, his flesh fell away, and the filthinesse of his smell was noysome to all his army.
† b. concr. Filth; spec. matter, pus. Obs.
1531. Tindale, Exp. 1 John (1537), 8. Ye water once in the yeare casteth al fylthynesse unto the sydes of it.
1580. Baret, Alv., F 511. The matter, or filthinesse that commeth out of a bile.
1611. Bible, Isa. xxviii. 8. All tables are full of vomite and filthinesse, so that there is no place cleane.
1649. Dryden, Upon Death of Ld. Hastings, 54.
| Was there no milder way but the Small Pox, | |
| The very Filth’ness of Pandora’s Box? |
2. Moral corruption or pollution; obscenity; vileness, wickedness.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 185 b. Than the deformite & fylthynes of synne is taken away.
1684. Jer. Taylor, Contempl. State of Man, II. x. (1699), 246. This deformity and filthiness of sin, the Philosophers judged it to be abhorred above all things.
1741. Richardson, Pamela, I. xxxi. 138. What a dreadful Prospect have I now before me, in the Hands of a Woman that seems to delight in Filthiness!
1834. Lytton, Pompeii, I. vi. You place me amongst men reeking with all the filthiness of vice.
