Dictionary

unquietness en · NOUN

Etymology

From unquiet + -ness.

Meanings

1. (archaic, uncountable, usually) The state or condition of being unquiet; unease, restlessness.
   • It vvas then broad day. I vvas sitting up in the bed, the cloaths of vvhich vvere all tossed, or rolled off, by the unquietness of our motions 1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC:
   • He went hence but now, / And certainly in strange unquietness. c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:
   • Mr. Yates […] immediately gave Sir Thomas an account of what they had done and were doing, […] relating every thing with so blind an interest as made him not only totally unconscious of the uneasy movements of many of his friends as they sat, the change of countenance, the fidget, the hem! of unquietness, but prevented him even from seeing the expression of the face on which his own eyes were fixed— […] 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter I, in Mansfield Park: […], volume II, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, pages 22–23:
   • [W]hat is he for a foole that betrothes himſelfe to vnquietneſſe? 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], signature B2, verso:
   • For as in the middest of the sea, though a man perceive no sound of that part of the water next him; yet he is well assured, that part contributes as much, to the Roaring of the Sea, as any other part, of the same quantity: so also, though wee perceive no great unquietnesse, in one, or two men; yet we may be well assured, that their singular Passions, are parts of the Seditious roaring of a troubled Nation. 1651, Thomas Hobbes, chapter 8, in Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, London: […] [William Wilson] for Andrew Crooke, […], →OCLC, 1st part (Of Man), page 47:
   • If all be well within, nothing can hurt us from without: For from inordinate Love, and vain Fears, comes all Unquietness of Spirit, and Distraction of Senses. 1655, Jeremy Taylor, The Golden Grove, 27th edition, published 1735, page 48:

Forms