[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The quality or state of being knowing.
1. The quality or state of being intelligent or well-informed; cleverness, cunning, shrewdness, appearance or air of shrewdness; affectation of knowing, sciolism.
1727. Bailey, vol. II., Knowingness, knowledge.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., A thief … who … affects a knowingness in his air and conversation.
1877. T. A. Trollope, Peep beh. Sc. at Rome, iv. 41. The glossy cylindrical hat … stuck with somewhat cynical knowingness over his left ear.
2. The state of being conscious, consciousness. rare.
1839. Carlyle, Chartism, v. 138. It grows to be the universal belief, sole accredited knowingness.
1841. L. Hunt, Seer, II. (1864), 28. We are not conscious of the reason: that is to say, we do not feel it with knowingness.
