[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The quality or state of being fulsome.
† 1. Abundance, plentifulness, fullness. Obs.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sqr.’s T., 397. The knotte, why that every tale is told, If it be taryed til that lust be cold … The savour passeth ever lenger the more, For fulsomnes of his prolixité.
a. 1400. Prymer (1891), 95. Y seyde in my fulsumnesse [in abundantia mea].
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy), 14. Bochous schewed ther his fulsomnes Off holsome wynes to every maner wighte.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys (Roxb.), 274. Of wych ioye kyng dauyd þus seyde expresse, I lord with þi fulsumnesse sacyat shal be.
† 2. The quality of cloying, surfeiting, or nauseating the palate; grossness, sickliness, or offensiveness of savour. Also, the state of being cloyed or surfeited. Also fig. Obs.
1481. Earl Worcester, Tulle on Friendsh., C iij a. Ther is not suche fulsomnesse in frendship, as ther is in other thynges, ffor frendship fareth as wine which may be kepte many yeres.
1576. Newton, Lemnie’s Complex., 156 a. The body lacking exercise, gathureth fulsomnes & pestilent sauours.
1594. Carew, Huarte’s Exam. Wits, xii. (1596), 191. Our soule hath a fulsomnesse at this slight meat.
1620. Venner, Via Recta, viii. 169. They induce fulsomenesse, and subuert the stomacke.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. ii. II. (1651), 238. To absterge belike that fulsomeness of sweet, to which they are there subject.
1656. H. More, Enthus. Triumph., 20. The blood will be sometime so quickned and actuated by the fiercenesse and sharpnesse of the Melancholy humour (as the fulsomnesse of sugar is by the acrimony of Lemons).
1688. Clayton, in Phil. Trans., XVII. 979. A strong sort of Tobacco, in which the Smoakers say they can plainly taste the fulsomness of the Dung.
1876. Trench, Synon. N. T., lxi. 219. By ‘fulsomeness’ is indicated the disgust and loathing from over-fulness of meat as well as of wine.
† 3. The quality of being offensive or disgusting to the senses; foulness, loathsomeness. Obs.
1563. Homilies, II. Repairing Ch. (1859), 277. All these abominations they … have cleansed and purged the churches of England of, taking away all such fulsomeness and filthiness as [etc.].
1610. Price, Creat. Prince, B j b. Others haue described them by some diseases, to manifest the fulsomness and loathsomnesse thereof.
4. The quality of being offensive to good taste (esp. by over-adulation or the like). † Also, coarseness, obscenity (obs.). (See FULSOME 6–7.)
1693. Dryden, Juvenal, Ded. (1697), 60. No Decency is consider’d, no Fulsomness omitted; no Venom is wanting, as far as dullness can supply it.
1699. Bentley, Phal., Preface, 50. How a man may commend himself, without Envy or Fulsomness.
1845. Ld. Campbell, Chancellors (1857), I. lviii. 179. Rather a proof of the bad taste in pulpit oratory prevailing … than of any peculiar servility or fulsomeness.
1881. Times, 13 March, 9/3. Adulation became an art, and was carried to a pitch of fulsomeness beyond modern conception.
