[f. FULL a. + -NESS. OE. had fyllnes = OHG. folnissi:—OTeut. *fullinassu-z; but as the existing word does not appear before the 14th c. it was prob. a new formation rather than a refashioning of the older word.

1

  The spelling fullness, though less common (exc. in the U.S.) than fulness, is here adopted as more in accordance with analogy: see the remarks s.v. DULLNESS.]

2

  The quality or condition of being full.

3

  1.  The condition of being filled so as to include no vacant space.

4

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., II. (1586), 80 b. The equall medley of heat and cold, drieth and moisture, fulnesse and emptinesse.

5

1632.  Lithgow, Trav., VI. 254. How commeth it to passe … that the Lake it selfe never diminisheth, nor increaseth, but alwayes standeth at one fulnesse.

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1692.  Bentley, Boyle Lect., vii. 223. If the presence of this æthereal Matter made an absolute Fulness, all Bodies of equal dimensions would be equally heavy.

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a. 1716.  South, Serm. (1737), II. iv. 145. Like water in a well, where you have fulness in a little compass.

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  b.  fig. Of the ‘heart’: The state of being overcharged with emotion.

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1625.  Bacon, Ess., Friendship (Arb.), 165. A principall Fruit of Friendship, is the Ease and Discharge of the Fulnesse and Swellings of the Heart, which Passions of all kinds doe cause and induce.

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1797.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, xx. (1824), 637. He yielded to the fulness of his heart.

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1885.  R. Buchanan, Annan Water, vi. Father only speaks out of the fulness of his heart.

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  2.  The condition of containing (something) in abundance, or of abounding in (a quality, etc.).

13

a. 1340.  Hampole, Psalter, xviii. 2. Fulnes of wisdom & gastly sauour.

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1651.  Hobbes, Leviath., III. xxxiv. 215. That Fulnesse [of the Holy Ghost] is not to be understood for Infusion of the substance of God.

15

1878.  L. P. Meredith, Teeth, 19. He remained in good health and strength till his death, and died in consequence of fullness of blood.

16

  b.  concr. All that is contained in (the world, etc.). A Hebraism.

17

a. 1325.  Prose Psalter, xlix. [l.] 13. Þe world and þe fulnes of it is myn.

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1535.  Coverdale, 1 Chron. xvii. 32. Let the See make a noyse, and the fulnesse therof.

19

1738.  Wesley, Ps. xxiv. i. The Earth and all her Fulness owns Jehovah for her sovereign Lord!

20

  3.  Completeness, perfection; complete or ample measure or degree.

21

c. 1320.  Cast. Love, 283. Of oone volnes they were ful ryȝht.

22

1548–9.  (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Offices 8 b. The fulnesse of thy grace.

23

1593.  Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., I. i. 35. Such is the Fulnesse of my hearts content.

24

1610.  Bp. Carleton, Jurisd., 2. They yeeld to the Pope a fulnesse of power as they tearme it, from whence all Spirituall Jurisdiction must proceed to others.

25

1611.  Bible, Ps. xvi. 11. Thou wilt shewe me the path of life: in thy presence is fulnesse of ioy, at thy right hand there are pleasures for euermore.

26

1667.  Milton, P. L., III. 225. The Son of God, In whom the fulness dwels of love divine.

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a. 1704.  T. Brown, Two Oxford Scholars, Wks. 1730, I. 10. Instead of an old rotten Parsonage or Vicarage-House, I promise myself Forty, Fifty, or Threescore good Houses, where I shall be entertain’d with such Fulness of Delight, yea, and Empire too, (not like your pitiful Curates and Chaplains, that must sneak to the Groom and Butler) that even the Gentlemen, that pretend to make Gods of their Landlords, will be apt to envy me.

28

1843.  Miall, in Nonconf., III. 401. Christianity is distinguished by … a fulness of generosity.

29

1855.  Milman, Lat. Chr. (1864), IV. VII. ii. 44. But if on this broad and general view the Pope stood thus on the vantage ground in his contest with the Emperor, never was a time in which the adversaries met on more unequal terms; the Papacy in the fullness of its strength, the Empire at the lowest state of weakness.

30

  b.  Phrases. The fullness of time (= Gr. πλήρωμα τοῡ χρόνον): in Biblical language, the proper or destined time. In its fullness: in its full extent, without exceptions or qualifications.

31

1560.  Bible (Genev.), Gal. iv. 4. When the fulnes of time was come, God sent forthe his Sonne.

32

1640.  Howell, Dodona’s Gr. (1645), 41. And this work was done in a fulness of time.

33

1751.  Jortin, Serm. (1771), I. i. 4. Which in the fulness of time should be made manifest.

34

1842.  Mrs. Browning, Grk. Chr. Poets (1863), 134. Admitting the suggestion in its fulness.

35

1867.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), I. App. 728. That tale he adopts in its fulness.

36

  c.  Copiousness or exhaustiveness (of knowledge, statement, or expression).

37

1860.  Pusey, The Minor Prophets, 410. The words, with a Divine fulness, express severally, [etc.].

38

1875.  Whitney, Life Lang., i. 5. The design of this volume, accordingly, is to draw out and illustrate the principles of linguistic science, and to set forth its results, with as much fullness as the limited space at command shall allow.

39

1885.  Manch. Exam., 8 May, 5/2. The study of the ancient languages is one which peculiarly demands fullness of knowledge to make it fruitful.

40

1887.  Spectator, 3 Sept., 1188. The interesting matters which he describes with more or less fullness.

41

  † 4.  The condition of being satisfied or sated; satiety, rejection; the condition of having indulged to excess. Obs.

42

1382.  Wyclif, Isa. lvi. 10. Vnshamefast doggus knewen not fulnesse.

43

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 182/1. Fulnesse of mete, sacietas.

44

c. 1560.  A. Scott, Poems (S. T. S.), ii. 109. Thair wes nowdir lad nor [pr. not] loun Mycht eit ane baikin loche For fowness.

45

1576.  A. Fleming, A Panoplie of Epistles, 115. As for me, if I may enjoy the fulnesse of my desyres, the residue of my lyfe will I lead in Rhodes, where I may possesse peace & quietnes.

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c. 1600.  Shaks., Sonnet lvi. 6.

        So loue by thou, although too daie thou fill
Thy hungrie eies, euen till they winck with fulnesse,
Too morrow see againe, and doe not kill
The spirit of Loue, with a perpetual dulnesse.

47

1666.  Stillingfl., Serm. (1696), I. i. 43. When God hath made us smart for our fulness and wantonness, then we grew sullen and murmured and disputed against providence.

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1682.  Norris, Hierocles, 93. In the third place he puts Exercise, as that which corrects the fulness of diet, and makes way for wholsome Nourishment.

49

  † 5.  The condition of being well supplied with what one needs. Hence, of things, abundance, plenty. Obs.

50

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 182/2. Fulnesse or plente, habundancia, copia.

51

1611.  Shaks., Cymb., III. vi. 12.

                        To lapse in Fulnesse
Is sorer, then to lye for Neede: and Falshood
Is worse in Kings, then Beggers.

52

1648.  Eikon Bas., ix. 57. The Houses; to whom I wished nothing more then Safetie, Fulness, and Freedom.

53

1698.  J. Fryer, A New Account of East-India and Persia, 225. Amidst this Fulness of every thing, it is wonderful to consider where they fetch them, or how they are bred.

54

1722.  De Foe, Col. Jack (1840), 180. Before I revelled in fulness, and here I struggled with hard fare; then I wallowed in sloth and voluptuous ease.

55

  6.  Of sound, color, etc.: The quality of being full; ‘volume,’ ‘body.’

56

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 182/2. Fulnesse of sownde, sonoritas.

57

1622.  Bacon, Hen. VII., 7. The King set forwards by easie iourneys to the Citie of London, receiuing the Acclamations and Applauses of the People as he went, which indeed were true and vnfained, as might well appeare in the very Demonstrations and Fulnesse of the Crie.

58

a. 1744.  Pope, Pastorals, I. note. This sort of poetry [pastoral] derives almost its whole beauty from a natural ease of thought and smoothness of verse; whereas that of most other kinds consists in the strength and fulness of both.

59

1851.  Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib., I. 131. Ochres … Exhibited on account of their clearness, fulness of colour, body.

60

1879.  Cassell’s Techn. Educ., I. 230/2. A subtle mingling of colour, an exquisite delicacy and refinement of treatment, a fulness such as always results from a rich mingling of hues.

61

1881.  Standard, 18 Oct., 3/4. The wort is … passed into a copper with 20 per cent. of malt-flour, to impart fullness and flavour.

62

  7.  Full habit of body; roundness or protuberance of outline.

63

1613.  Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 505. Crabbes heere with us have a sympathy with the Moone, and are fullest with her fulnes.

64

1638.  Sir R. Baker, trans. Letters of Mounsieur de Balzac (vol. III.), 173. I have been in extasie to heare of your health, and that you keepe your bodie in that reasonable fulnesse of flesh, which contributes something to your gravitie, and addes nothing to your weight.

65

1698.  J. Fryer, A New Account of East-India and Persia, 378. Most of them by a Fulness of Body are subject to the Hemorrhoids.

66

1798.  Ferriar, Illustr. Sterne, i. 7. A certain degree of fulness improves the figure, but if it be encreased to excessive fatness, it becomes risible.

67

a. 1822.  Shelley, Pericles, Ess. & Lett. (Camelot), 140. The face is of an oval fulness.

68

1841.  Brewster, Mart. Sc., III. ii. In a family notorious for fulness, she is considered superfluously fat.

69

  b.  A feeling of internal pressure or distension.

70

1800.  Med. Jrnl., IV. 364. I perceived a sense of fulness in the head, and throbbing of the arteries. Ibid. (1807), XVII. 528. ‘Internal distress, a sense of fulness and aching’ may be felt.

71

  8.  Dressmaking. The condition of being ‘full.’ Also concr. the portion of material arranged in folds to produce this.

72

1884.  West. Daily Press, 2 June, 7/2. An ordinary short skirt … trimmed with flounces, or other fulnesses.

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1897.  Globe, 18 Feb., 6/3. The fulness of this blouse effect is drawn in close at the waist.

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