wantonness
English
Etymology
From Middle English wantonnesse, wantonesse, wantounesse, wantownesse, equivalent to wanton + -ness.
Noun
wantonness (usually uncountable, plural wantonnesses)
- (uncountable) The state or characteristic of being wanton; recklessness, especially as represented in lascivious or other excessive behavior.
- c. 1597 William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act IV scene ii[1]:
- The spirit of wantonness is, sure, scared out of him: if the devil have him not in fee-simple, with fine and recovery, he will never, I think, in the way of waste, attempt us again.
- 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, ch. 16:
- The sweetness was turned to adamantine, heartless cruelty, and the purity to voluptuous wantonness.
- c. 1597 William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act IV scene ii[1]:
- (countable, dated) A particular wanton act.
- 1882, John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England during the Stuart Dynasty, Little Brown (Boston), v. 3, p. 366:
- These were simply the wantonnesses of a dishonest man.
- 1882, John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England during the Stuart Dynasty, Little Brown (Boston), v. 3, p. 366: