[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The state or condition of being frantic.
a. 1529. Skelton, Sp. Parrot, 410.
Speke, Parotte, my swete byrde, and ye shall haue a date, | |
Of frantycknes and folysshnes whyche ys the grett state? |
1583. Golding, Calvin on Deut. clxxii. 1568. He sheweth that men bee driuen with a certaine furie or frentikenesse when they cannot finde in their heartes to submit themselues to God, to bee wunne vnto him by his worde.
1664. Pepys, Diary, 15 Aug. Her kinswoman, who it seems is sickly even to frantiqueness sometimes, and among other things chiefly from love and melancholy upon the death of her servant.
1718. Entertainer, No. 21, 26 March, ¶ 6. Frantickness, and a Start of Passion, they deifyd as the Extremity of Courage and Resolution, when they had no more the Relish or Extract of Heroick Virtue, than true Miracles can vie with false ones.
1878. Mrs. Hungerford, Molly Bawn (1893), 139. You have all the franticness to yourself.