[ad. F. lubricité or L. lūbricitās, f. lūbricus LUBRIC.]
1. Slipperiness, smoothness; oiliness. Also in pl.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 477. The same liquor is easie to diuide into drops, and as apt again by the lubricitie thereof, to run into an humor.
1633. T. Carew, Coel. Brit. (1634), 5. Hebe, through the lubricity of the pavement tumbling over the Halfe-pace.
1668. H. More, Div. Dial., I. ii. 179. The manifold Incompossibilities and Lubricities of Matter, that … would [not] be fit for any thing, if its shapes … were not … infinitely varied.
1784. Cowper, Task, V. 165. The same lubricity was found in all, And all was moist to the warm touch.
1822–34. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), I. 383. The shrillness or roughness of the voice depends on the internal diameter of the glottis, its elasticity, motility, and lubricity.
1831. Syd. Smith, Sp., Wks. 1859, II. 219/1. Hands, accustomed to the scented lubricity of soap.
1878. Emerson, Misc., Fort. Repub., Wks. (Bohn), III. 391. In creeping out of one snake-skin into another of equal … lubricity.
† b. spec. in Pathology. Obs.
1547. Boorde, Brev. Health, iii. 8. Abhorsion … maye come by ventositie and lubricite of humours in the matryx.
c. 1550. Lloyd, Treas. Health (1585), D ij. For ye lubricitie of ye bowelles when the meate cometh furth vndigestyd.
1710. T. Fuller, Pharm. Extemp., 225. It … roborates the Bowels, corrects their Lubricity.
1755. Johnson, Lett. to Miss Boothby, 31 Dec. A very probable remedy for indigestion and lubricity of the bowels.
2. fig. a. ‘Slipperiness,’ shiftiness; unsteadiness, instability; elusiveness. Also with pl.
1613. R. Cawdrey, Table Alph. (ed. 3), Lubricitie, lightnesse, slipery, inconstant.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett., I. III. xxi. The lubricity of mundan greatnesse.
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., 213. How necessary it is that the holy Prophecies should … be made of uncertain Interpretation by undeterminable lubricities.
1792. W. Roberts, Looker-On, No. 39 (1794), I. 428. This lubricity of manner, and alienation of thought in his neighbour.
1842. Miall, in Nonconf., II. 505. The speech, in their judgment, exhibits more of the lubricity of the clever tactician than of the serious designs of the minister.
1874. Motley, Barneveld (1879), II. xi. 47. The one ally on whom they had a right to depend … was slipping out of their grasp with distracting lubricity.
† b. Volubility, glibness. Obs.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 202. The bulwarke of reason should … be set against it [the tongue], which … may stay … that overflowing and inconstant lubricitie which it hath.
1657. Hawke, Killing is M., Pref. 1. Defamation proceeding from the lubricity of the tongue.
c. Mobility, suppleness. rare.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, II. ii. ¶ 2. You would not have been a martyr to the gout, and your limbs would have performed their functions with lubricity.
3. Lasciviousness, lewdness, wantonness. Also with pl. an instance of this.
1491. Caxton, Vitas Patr. (W. de W., 1495), I. li. 108 a/1. The poore doughter was two yere liuynge in lubrycyte and lecherye.
1593. Munday, Def. Contraries, 83. Mens vaine pleasures and idle lubricities.
1611. Coryat’s Crudities, Panegyr. Verses. The ladyes of Lubricity that live in the Bordello.
1693. Dryden, Disc. Satire, Ess. (ed. Ker), II. 53. From the lechery of those Fauns [he] thinks he has sufficiently proved that satire is derived from them: as if wantonness and lubricity were essential to that sort of poem.
1777. G. Forster, Voy. round World, I. 457. This lubricity was … very far from being general, and we had reason to believe that not a single married woman was guilty of infidelity.
1870. Rock, Text. Fabr., Introd. vii. 140. Mischief and lubricity are … shadowed forth in the likeness of the monkey.
1883. M. Arnold, in Pall Mall G., 13 Nov., 2/1. What man is there that knoweth not that the city of the French is a worshipper of the great goddess Lubricity?
1902. Onlooker’s Note-Bk., ii. 12. Women gaze unmoved on the most risky plays and freely canvass the lubricities of life.
