Forms: see STURDY a.; also 4 stordenesse. [-NESS.] The quality or condition of being sturdy.
1. The condition (in animals) of being ‘sturdy’ or dizzy; spec. in sheep. = STURDY B. 1.
1552. Huloet, Sturdynes or desynes of a beast,… gangilion.
1756. Compl. Body Husb., 695. Sturdyness … is a kind of vertigo or giddiness in the Head of Sheep.
† 2. Fierceness, violence; harshness, sternness.
1382. Wyclif, 2 Cor. xii. 20. Sturdynessis [Vulg. animositates].
c. 1386. [see STURDY a. 4].
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 198. Tempest on se, and wyndes sturdynesse.
† 3. Refractoriness, rebelliousness, contumacy, obstinacy. Obs.
a. 1400. Gloss, in Rel. Ant., I. 7. Contumacia, a sturdynesse.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 77. Þe laste cornere of wose in pride is sturdynesse, þat is, whanne þou excusyst þin opyn or pryue synne,… & wylt noȝt knowyn þi defawte, ne wylt noȝt suffryn to ben vndertakyn.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 481/2. Sturdynesse, rebellio, inobediencia, contumacia.
1544. Betham, Precepts War, II. xvii. K iij. Of disobedience and sturdynesse.
1549. Cheke, Hurt Sedit. (1569), C ij b. What counsayle taketh place, where sturdinesse is lawe, and churlishe aunsweres be counted wisedome?
1673. Ladies Calling, I. ii. § 10. The stupid sturdiness of an asse has rendered it proverbial for folly.
4. Strength of character; firmness, resoluteness.
1675. J. Smith, Chr. Relig. Appeal, I. 70. Their Nurture and Education … had … so much effeminated their innate sturdiness, as they were not able to sustain the sharpness of that War.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1727), VI. 273. The natural Sturdiness of some Tempers might be sufficient to enable some Persons to endure such exquisite Torments.
1727. Bailey, vol. II., Sturdiness, Lustiness, Resoluteness.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 287. What degree of sturdiness we can acquire, to maintain the determinations of our impartial judgment.
1822. Hazlitt, Table-t., Knowl. Charac., II. 346. All they want is imagination and sturdiness of moral principle!
1914. Q. Rev., April, 487. The virility and sturdiness of the Cretan Greeks he did realise.
5. Rough vigor of body; solidity of build. Also of things.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, xxx. His limbs had got back some of their old sturdiness.
1916. Glasgow Herald, 1 Sept., 8. Craft that, despite their sturdiness, move in rough weather like buck-jumping ponies.
