[f. next + -AGE.]
1. The conduct or practice of a libertine; habitual licentiousness with regard to the relation of the sexes; = LIBERTINISM 2.
1611. Cotgr., Libertinage, Libertinage, Epicurisme, sensualitie, licentiousnesse, dissolutenesse.
1639. Marcombes, in Lismore Papers, Ser. II. (1888), IV. 98. Hauing tasted allready a litle drope of ye Libertinage of ye Court.
1798. Malthus, Popul. (1878), 20. The libertinage which … prevails must … render them … unfit for bearing children.
1819. Metropolis (ed. 2), II. 181. The General … was … famous for libertinage and debauchery.
1844. For. Q. Rev., XXXIII. 189. The suppers of the Duke of Orleans became a school of libertinage.
1873. Smiles, Huguenots Fr., I. xiii. (1881), 259. The upper classes … were given up for the most part to frivolity and libertinage.
2. Free-thinking in religious matters; = LIBERTINISM 1.
1660. Blome, Fanat. Hist., i. 5. Anabaptism, being a doctrine of licentiousness and libertinage.
1767. Warburton, Serm. Linc. Inn, xiii. Wks. 1788, V. 194, note. Erasmus … thought he saw, under all their fondness for the Language of old Rome, a growing libertinage, which disposed them to think slightly of the Christian Faith.
