[f. SQUARE a.]

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  1.  The quality of being square in form.

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c. 1400.  Maundev. (1839), xiv. 159. The Dyamand, be vertu of God, takethe squarenesse.

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1474.  Caxton, Chesse, IV. i. (1883), 158. The seconde is wherfore the bordeur aboute is hyher than the squarenes of the poyntes.

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1530.  Palsgr., 201/1. Brede or squarenesse, croisure.

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1590.  Stockwood, Rules Constr., 48. The depth, length, thicknes, squarenes, roundnes of a thing.

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1613.  Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 433. They made a thing being foure square, and in height and squarenesse of a chaire.

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1690.  Locke, Hum. Und., II. xxi. § 14. Liberty being as little applicable to the will, as swiftness of motion is to sleep, or squareness to vertue.

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1768–74.  Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), I. 278. When the wax is new moulded, the squareness it had is totally lost.

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1818.  Art Bookbinding, 14. The beauty and squareness of the book greatly depend on having it well backed.

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1855.  Poultry Chron., II. 410. We should like to see amateurs … address great attention to compact squareness of form and shortness of leg.

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1897.  Chr. Herald (N. York), 15 Dec., 970/2. The shoulders had the awful squareness of a skeleton.

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  transf.  1873.  H. C. Banister, Music, 175. Such devices serve to avert squareness, or tameness, especially in the development of musical ideas.

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1885.  Mag. Art, Sept., 467. The determined character and consistent squareness of the touch.

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  2.  Conformity to good principles.

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1642.  Quarles, Observ. Princes & St., lxiv. Let Princes be very carefull in the Choyce of their Counsellors, choosing … by the Squarenesse of their actions.

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1780.  Burke, Corr. (1844), II. 356. I hope you will … bring the squareness, the manliness, and the decision of a judicial place into the house of parliament.

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1817.  Keats, Lett., Wks. 1889, III. 69. I am sure you are confident of my responsibility, and in the sense of squareness that is always in me.

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  3.  Rectangular position in relation to some line or object.

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1796.  Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813), 11. On this squareness of man and horse both dressing and movement must essentially depend.

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1802.  James, Milit. Dict., s.v. March, Regularity of step, squareness of body, and precision of movement.

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1847.  Infantry Man. (1854), 3. The equal squareness of the shoulders and body to the front is the first … principle of the position of a soldier.

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1875.  Carpentry & Join., 44. Plane this level, and then test its squareness to the first.

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