Also stageyness. [f. STAGY a. + -NESS.]

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  1.  Stagy character or style; the quality of being stagy; theatrical mannerism.

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1857.  Daily News, 24 Dec., 3/4. The staginess and artificiality which marked her [Amy Sedgwick’s] first performances have to a great extent disappeared.

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1864.  Reader, 7 May, 598. There is not a trace of staginess to be detected.

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1878.  Jevons, Methods Soc. Reform, 10. The crudeness and staginess of the play need to be subdued.

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1882.  A. W. Ward, Dickens, vii. 206. In his earlier writings … there is much stageyness.

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  2.  Of a seal or its skin (see STAGY a. 2).

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1887.  H. W. Elliott, in G. B. Goode, Fish. Industr. U. S., v. II. 488. These [sea-otter] skins … never show at any season those signs of shedding and staginess so marked in the seal.

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1898.  D. S. Jordan, Fur Seals, I. 66. The trouble here arises from a misunderstanding of what is meant by ‘staginess.’ It does not designate any marked difference in quantity of the fur.

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