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The quality or state of being fond; foolishness. [Obs.] Fondness it were for any, being free, To covet fetters, though they golden be. Spenser.

To show a fondness for; to like to use or practice; to choose; hence, to frequent habitually. For he does neither affect company, nor is he fit for Shak. Do not affect the society of your inferiors in rank, nor court that of the great. Hazlitt.

Fondness; affection. [Obs.] Hooker.

The quality of being affectionate; fondness; affection.

A extravagant fondness for flowers. [R.]

To join bills, as doves; to caress in fondness. "As pigeons bill." Shak. To bill and coo, to interchange caresses; -- said of doves; also of demonstrative lovers. Thackeray.

To treat with tokens of fondness, affection, or kindness; to touch or speak to in a loving or endearing manner; to fondle. The lady caresses the rough bloodhoun. Sir W. Scott.

tring scent, and sometimes used in medicine. It is so called because cats have a peculiar fondness for it.

Adherence to external rites; fondness for ceremony.

rbadoes. -- Cherry bird (Zoöl.), an American bird; the cedar bird; -- so called from its fondness for cherries. -- Cherry bounce, cherry brandy and sugar. -- Cherry brandy, brandy in which cherries have been steeped. -- Cherry laurel (Bot.), an evergren shrub (Prunus Lauro-cerasus) common in shrubberies, the poison…

Calling for notice; compelling attention; notorious; heinous; as, a crying evil. Too much fondness for meditative retirement is not the crying sin of our modern Christianity. I. Taylor.

A term of fondness. [Poetic] B. Jonson.

To treat with fondness, as if a child; to fondle; to toy with; to pet. They have put me in a silk gown and gaudy fool's cap; I as ashamed to be dandled thus. Addison. The book, thus dandled into popularity by bishops and good ladies, contained many pieces of nursery eloquence. Jeffrey.

Fondness; preciousness; love; tenderness. The dearness of friendship. Bacon.

ffensive; disapprobation; repugnance; displeasure; disfavor; -- the opposite of liking or fondness. God's grace . . . gives him continual dislike to sin. Hammond. The hint malevolent, the look oblique, The obvious satire, or implied dislike. Hannah More. We have spoken of the dislike of these excellent women for Sherid…

Excessive fondness; weak and foolish affection. The dotage of the nation on presbytery. Bp. Burnet.

een in the masculine character after childhood or early youth, was shown in the General's fondness for the sight and fragrance of flowers. Hawthorne.

Fondness for, or interest in, horses.

e should never issue from my lips. Tooke. They err, that through indulgence to others, or fondness to any sin in themselves, substitute for repentance anything less. Hammond.

ty. Shenstone. Whoever had qualities to alarm our jealousy, had excellence to deserve our fondness. Rambler.