[f. next.] The quality of being unruly. (Of persons, animals, etc.)
1547. Act 1 Edw. VI., c. 12 § 1. The Insolency and Unruliness of Men.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., III. 150. You must keepe the Boare from them; for with his vnrulinesse, he maketh them to cast.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades, 301/1. Therein doth patience make proofe of it self,… that it neuer breaketh forthe to immoderate vnrulynesse.
1638. Rawley, trans. Bacon’s Life & Death, 210. For the Quieting of the vnruliness of the spirits.
1684. J. S., Profit & Pleas. United, 14. For the better preservation of your Cattle, both from sickness and hurt, which may happen through their unruliness.
1695. J. Edwards, Perfect. Script., 440. Excellent caveats … touching … unruliness of the tongue.
1704. Dict. Rust., s.v. Mare, His own unruliness being so great, the Cure [of the colt] may be very difficult.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 356. We ascribe the … unruliness of inordinate desires … to the fatal effects of original sin.
1805. Wordsw., Prelude, VI. 392. Some vapoured in the unruliness of joy.
1858. Froude, Hist. Eng., IV. xix. 110. The governments affected to regret the unruliness of their subjects.
