Also 7–8 springy-. [f. SPRINGY a. + -NESS.]
1. The quality of being springy or elastic.
1665. Phil. Trans., I. 29. Here are found inquiries concerning … Springiness and Tenacity.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., viii. 283. The Air is a thin fluid Body, endued with Elasticity or Springiness.
1751. Phil. Trans., XLVII. 300. Their springiness makes them separate when the introductor is mounted on the canula.
1841. B. Hall, Patchwork, I. vi. 86. We passed … along the turf, the springiness of which proved a vast relief.
1862. Smiles, Engineers, III. 229. There was, and still is, a sort of springiness in the road over the Moss.
transf. 1826. Disraeli, V. Grey, V. vi. The springiness of my mind has gone.
b. Elasticity of movement in persons or animals.
1812. W. Tennant, Anster Fair, IV. iii. Th’ audacious men of boasted springiness.
1847. L. Hunt, Men, Women, & B., I. iii. 43. With what a … massy springiness they brush by you.
1869. Daily News, 6 Nov., 5/6. There was a cheeriness about them … and a springiness in their movements that betokened first-rate condition.
1886. Miss Braddon, One Thing Needful, v. The bays went with a certain springiness, which told Lashmar that they were very fresh.
2. a. Capacity for sprouting or growing. b. The characteristic features of spring-time.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 129. The seeds of most or all growths, kept beyond their full time,… loose their springinesses.
1824. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. I. (1863), 66. Even the early elder shoots, which do make an approach to springiness, look brown.
3. Wet, moist or spongy condition in land.
1828–32. in Webster.
