[f. prec. + -NESS.] The quality or state of being forgetful.

1

  1.  The quality of being apt to forget, the state of forgetting.

2

1477.  Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 19. Establisshe & ease … thy foryetfulnesse with thyn remembraunce.

3

1553.  T. Wilson, Rhet., III. 112 a. Where ouer much cold is, & extreme moysture, there is euer muche forgetfulnesse.

4

1699.  Bentley, Phal., 282. This, I am persuaded, he did not do out of design, but pure forgetfullness.

5

1725.  Pope, Odyss., XII. 365.

        Nor cease the tears, ’till each in slumber shares
A sweet forgetfulness of human cares.

6

1783.  Hailes, Antiq. Chr. Ch., iv. 81, note. Such was … the constitutional forgetfulness of Claudius.

7

1838.  Dickens, Nich. Nick., xxx. He smiled upon all present in happy forgetfulness of having exhibited symptoms of pugnacity.

8

  2.  The condition of forgetting or losing recollection of everything.

9

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIII. i. (1495), 440. In Boecia ben two welles, that one makith good mynde, and that other makyth foryetfulnesse.

10

14[?].  Ephyphanye, in Tundale’s Vis., 116.

        Eke after deth abydeth no memory
For euer with deth cometh forgetfulnes
And farewell then all grett aray and veyn glory
Save only vartu that stondeth in sykerness.

11

1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., III. i. 8.

                    O Sleepe, O gentle Sleepe,
Natures soft Nurse, how haue I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eye-lids downe,
And steepe my Sences in Forgetfulnesse?

12

  3.  The state of being forgotten, oblivion. ? Obs.

13

1561.  T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., IV. xviii. (1634), 704. Thi Masse … shamefully dishonoreth Christ, burieth and oppresseth his crosse, putteth his death in forgetfulnesse.

14

1663.  Charleton, Chor. Gigant., 5. Monuments themselves are subject to Forgetfulness even while they remain.

15

1779–81.  Johnson, L. P., Mallet. His next work was ‘Amyntor and Theodora.’… The first sale was not great, and it is now lost in forgetfulness.

16

1829.  Lytton, Devereux, I. xiv. The forgetfulness of one buried is nothing to the forgetfulness of one disgraced.

17

  4.  Disregard, inattention, neglect.

18

1576.  A. Fleming, A Panoplie of Epistles, 272. It doeth kindle in his mynde, forgetfulnesse of him selfe.

19

1751.  Johnson, Rambler, No. 180, 7 Dec., ¶ 5. He that devotes himself wholly to retired study, naturally sinks from omission to forgetfulness of social duties, from which he must be sometimes awakened, and recalled to the general condition of mankind.

20

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 211, Laws, I. Education certainly gives victory, although victory sometimes produces forgetfulness of education.

21