[f. FRANK a.2 + -NESS.] The quality of being frank.
† 1. Liberality, bounteousness, generosity. Also, luxuriance. Obs.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Largueza, franknes.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxxii. § 2. To take downe the frankenesse of nature, and to tame the wildnesse of flesh.
1711. Hearne, Collect. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), III. 124. I requested that you might see it; which, with his usual Frankness, he readyly granted.
1738. Lucca’s Mem., The Publisher to the Reader, p. vi. Of all others they seem to have the greatest Respect for the English; whether it be on account of their Power at Sea, or their Frankness in spending their Money.
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), III. 64. He was expensive, and kept a great table, and often pressed the king for money with a freedom which his majesty’s own frankness indulged.
2. Freedom of address or manner; absence of disguise, reserve, or suspicion; candor, ingenuousness, openness.
1668. Temple, Lett. Sir O. Bridgman, Wks. 1731, II. 55. He would return my Frankness to him with the same to me.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 174, 15 Nov., ¶ 7. I can scarcely believe, when I recollect my own practice, that I could have been so deluded with trivial praise, as to divulge the secrets of consultation, and to expose the levities of frankness.
1816. J. Scott, Vis. Paris (ed. 5), 28. The servants come with an air of frankness to assist him to alight.
1840. Arnold, Hist. Rome, II. xxxiii. 346. He [Fabius] had experienced also the noble frankness of his [Decius’] nature, which never allowed any selfish jealousy to stand in the way of his private friendship, and much less of his devotion to his country’s service.
1858. Froude, Hist. Eng., IV. xviii. 54. The King of England implored his nephew to meet his overtures with the frankness with which they were made.
1875. Helps, Ess., Secrecy, 53. That happy union of frankness and reserve, which is to be desired, comes not by studying rules, either for candour or for caution.
b. esp. in speech: Outspokenness. More fully, Frankness of speech (in early use = ‘liberty of speech’).
1553. Brende, Q. Curtius, VIII. 159. After the death of Clitus all libertie and franckenes of speache being taken away, they semed to agre with their countenaunces, the moste apt instrument to declare the consent of the mynde.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. § 77. The Other … declared with a very unnecessary Frankness, ‘that he would have no Friendship … with him.’
1729. T. Cooke, Tales, Proposals, etc., 57.
| What from the Frankness of your Soul you say | |
| The Fool may tattel, and the Knave betray. |
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., I. 357. Profound dissimulation under the disguise of military frankness.
1823. Lamb, Elia (1860), 132. She confessed, with her usual frankness, that she had no sort of dislike to his attentions.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xxiv. 168. As regards physical science, however, the contributions of our mountaineers have as yet been nil, and hence, when we hear of the scientific value of their doings, it is simply amusing to the climbers themselves. I do not fear that I shall offend them in the least by my frankness in stating this.
1886. Academy, XXIX. 30 Jan. 83/3. The comedy of Dryden, despite certain roughnesses and franknesses of expression, was more in keeping with the notions of our day than was that of the men who followed him during his later life.
3. Freedom of artistic treatment.
1784. J. Barry, in Lect. Paint., vi. (1848), 221. Without these necessary precautions it would be impossible to execute a great work in fresco; and even with them, it requires such spirit, frankness, decision, and graceful easy execution, as can alone result from great intelligence and ability.
1849. Ruskin, Sev. Lamps, v. § v. 140. Two very distinguishing characters of vital imitation are, its Frankness and its Audacity.
