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audacity|ɔːˈdæsɪtɪ|
Forms: 5 audacite, 5–6 -yte, 6–7 -itie, 7 -itye, 6– audacity.
[f. L. audāc-em audacious + -ity; see -acity: cf. It. audacita (Florio 1611).]
1. Boldness, daring, intrepidity; confidence.
1432–50tr. Higden (1865) I. 61 Euery thynge is of more animosite and audacite in his universalle then his parte parcialle. 1538Coverdale N.T. Ded., It doth..encourage me now likewyse to use the same audacity toward your grace. 1601Holland Pliny II. 454 Such is the audacitie of man, that hee hath learned to counterfeit Nature. 1714Steele Lover (1723) 30 Some..have relapsed from the Audacity they had arrived at, into their first Bashfulness. 1839–42Alison Hist. Europe lvii. §9 Under the eye of the Emperor..nothing was impracticable to their audacity.
b. Bold departure from the conventional form; daring originality.
1859Jephson Brittany viii. 104 The beauty of its [a tower's] details and the audacity of its construction. 1878Tait & Stewart Unseen Univ. Introd. 21 In strength and happy audacity of language.
2. Boldness combined with disregard of consequences; venturesomeness, rashness, recklessness.
1531Elyot Gov. (1580) 163 Audacitie..is an excessiue and inordinate trust, to escape all daungers. 1660Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 622/1 Fortitude is different from Audacity, Ferocity, inconderate Temerity. 1840Macaulay Clive 9 Neither climate nor poverty..could tame the desperate audacity of his spirit.
3. Open disregard of the restraints of decorum or morality; effrontery, impudence, shamelessness.
1545Joye Exp. Daniel vii. (R.) With the most arrogant audacite thei dare alter..and expowne Gods lawes and gospell at their plesures. 1865Livingstone Zambesi vi. 140 His Excellency was shocked at her audacity, and reprimanded her.
4. Boldness in the concrete, a bold creature.
1658Sir T. Browne Hydriot. 39 Those audacities, that durst be nothing, and return into their Chaos again. |