abruptnessn.

1585 T. Este in R. P. tr. D. Ortúñez de Calahorra Second Pt. First Bk. Myrrour of Knighthood To Rdr. Good Reader, I beseech thee, beare with the abruptnesse of the translation, the errours of the impression, and the good meaning of the Authour.

1662 Life & Death Mrs. Mary Frith To Rdr. Her other more indifferent Pranks and Feats will be good diversion to the honest and ingenious, and to him they are commended, desiring him to Excuse the Abruptnesse and Discontinuance of the Matter.

1695 J. Woodward Ess. Nat. Hist. Earth 173 The Crystallized Bodies..have always their Root,..which is only the Abruptness at the end of the Body whereby it adhered to the Stone,..which Abruptness is caused by its being broke off from it.

1755 S. Johnson Hist. Eng. Lang. sig. D, in Dict. Eng. Lang. Their speech..must have been artless and unconnected, without any modes of transition or involution of clauses; which abruptness and inconnection may be observed even in their later writings.

1773 J. Home Alonzo iii. 40 I..have marr'd the story By my abruptness. 'Tis a serious story, Not to be told in parcels and by starts.

1854 Eclectic Rev. Mar. 347 As he [sc. Ivan Golovin] is a foreigner, we make, with pleasure, some allowance for the abruptness of his style, and the incomplete form of his publication.

1591 J. Harington tr. L. Ariosto Orlando Furioso xxvi. lxxxiii. 304 Now of force I must cut off my tale, And pray you my abruptnesse to excuse.

1639 L. Carlell Arviragus & Philicia i. ii sig. B7^v Fierce necessity compells me with an abruptnesse, bordering on incivility, to beg an answer to that sute.

1640 R. Brathwait Ar't Asleepe Husband? 88 With much abruptnesse of speech, fire and fury in his eyes; he askes her what Company she had in her Bed-chamber such a day?

1731 J. Trapp in tr. Virgil Wks. III. 175 That Me, me is the most elegant Abruptness: the very Perfection of an imperfect Sentence.

1745 E. Haywood Female Spectator I. 331 I appeal to all the World,..if it had not been a greater Proof of his Understanding, as well as of that Good-Manners and Good-Will we all owe to one another, if he had testify'd his Disapprobation of the Piece, modestly submitted to his Censure, with less Abruptness.

1756 J. Warton Ess. on Pope I. i. 10 Pope lengthened the abruptness of Waller, and at the same time contracted the exuberance of Dryden.

1766 H. Brooke Fool of Quality (Dublin ed.) II. viii. 50 I went, eagerly, to wish Mr. Longfield a good morning, and to apologize for the Abruptness of last Night's Behaviour.

a1817 J. Austen Northanger Abbey (1818) II. xiii. 261 Without any reason that could justify, any apology that could atone for the abruptness, the rudeness, nay, the insolence of it. View more context for this quotation

1874 Athenæum May 2 A certain abruptness in his manner, and..scant appreciation of her society, at once repel her and pique her curiosity.

1892 C. S. Newhall Trees N.E. Amer. 192 The fewness and abruptness of its large branches give to it in the winter a dead and stumpy look.

1933 E. Partridge Words, Words, Words! i. 71 Jack is still very frequent among ‘the common people’ when, in addressing a stranger, one wishes to avoid the abruptness caused by omitting the unknown name.

1955 G. Greene Quiet Amer. iv. ii. 225 Perhaps the very abruptness of my refusal of tea caused some disquiet.

1991 H. Blamires Hist. Lit. Crit. (BNC) 200 A narrative conciseness and abruptness which leaves much to the reader's imagination.

1993 K. Kingston Warning of Magic i. 13 ‘Attachments? Husband in the offing? Children?’ ‘None.’ Her manner matched his in abruptness.

1603 R. Knolles Gen. Hist. Turkes 281 The first that mounted the hill was the king his battaile, which by the roughnesse and abruptnesse of the mountaine hindered, oftentimes staied.

1640 J. Howell Δενδρολογια 14 Her abruptnesse, barrenes and heat, carry with them another mighty benefit, for she cannot be so easily overrunne by forren force.

1645 J. Howell Epistolæ Ho-elianæ i. xxii. 43 I had much ado to reach hither, for besides the monstreous abruptnes of the way, these parts of the Pyreneys..are never without Theeves.

1782 R. Orme Hist. Fragm. Mogul Empire (1783) 29 Passes which open into the inland country by windings amongst the mountains which diminish the abruptness of the ascent.

1839 C. Darwin in R. Fitzroy & C. Darwin Narr. Surv. Voy. H.M.S. Adventure & Beagle III. xx. 487 I have seen mountains on a far grander scale, but for abruptness, no part of them at all comparable to this.

1876 D. Page Adv. Text-bk. Geol. (ed. 6) ii. 40 Breadth or abruptness of its valleys.

1958 Geogr. Jrnl. 124 6 Terrain which often rose with appalling abruptness from sea level to 7000 [feet].

1999 Art Bull. 81 320/2 The mountainous Pine Orchard plateau that soars, with the abruptness of the Acropolis, 1,600 feet above the Hudson River valley.

1604 B. Jonson His Pt. Royall Entertainem. 643 Pardon, if my abruptnesse breed disease.

1640 J. Rutter Cid II. iii. sig. D Your Majestie will pardon Th' abruptnesse of my parting.

1700 B. Keach Jewish Sabbath Abrogated iv. 78 Dr. Owen saith, if the original of the Sabbath was here, then the National Observation of it is introduced with a strange abruptness, &c.

1751 S. Johnson Rambler No. 139. ⁋7 The beginning [of Samson Agonistes] is undoubtedly beautiful and proper, opening with a graceful abruptness.

1761 F. Sheridan Mem. Miss Sidney Bidulph I. 132 The world would be apt to cast reflections on me, on account of the abruptness with which the match was broken off.

1819 N. Amer. Rev. Mar. 307 It is a poem of vast and awful conception... There is nothing of conceit in the startling abruptness of the opening.

1839 C. Dickens Nicholas Nickleby xxii. 212 Nicholas could not refrain from smiling at the abruptness of the question.

1878 H. James Watch & Ward vii. 157 Though her friend might have been concerned in Hubert's desertion, its peculiar abruptness had a peculiar motive.

1906 J. London White Fang v. ii. 283 He halted with awkward abruptness.

1922 N. Munro in Evening News (Glasgow) Feb. 2/3 He would have been run over, but for the ferocious abruptness with which the driver put on his brakes.

1986 Jrnl. Higher Educ. 57 598 The abruptness of the decision denied the community an opportunity to save the College.

2008 Wichita (Kansas) Eagle (Nexis) 17 Feb. e6 Something strange is revealed to us with such abruptness that the novel never recovers.