[f. next + -NESS. Cf. MDu. onclein-, oncleenlijcheit.]
1. Lack of moral cleanness; moral impurity.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1570), 238. The newe disguises hath … come to Englande, and eche vnclenlynes Doth leade vs wretches.
1540. Hyrde, trans. Vives’ Instr. Chr. Wom., Pref. A iv b. I wolde not fall in to any vnclenlynes, which were the grettest shame that can be, for hym that shuld be a maister of chastitie.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., II. i. 82. My wife … might haue bin accus’d in fornication, adultery, and all vncleanlinesse there.
2. Want of physical cleanliness.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 142 b. Beeyng chidden, for yt he was a gooer into places full of … vnclenelynesse.
1598. Florio, Immonditia, vnclenlines, filthines.
1722. Lond. Gaz., No. 6057/1. The Poverty and Uncleanliness of the Parents.
1802. Mrs. Sherwood, Susan Gray, 18. However poor you may be, there can be no necessity for uncleanliness.
1859. R. F. Burton, Centr. Afr., in Jrnl. Geog. Soc., XXIX. 417. The village … is not only healthier,… despite its uncleanliness, but is also more comfortable.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 747. Personal uncleanliness is a powerful general cause [of Acnitis].
