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The quality or state of being perverse. "Virtue hath some perverseness." Donne.

state or quality of being contrary; opposition; inconsistency; contrariety; perverseness; obstinancy.

Stubborn perverseness; pertinacious resistance to authority. The bishop commanded him . . . to be thrust into the stocks for his manifest and manifold contumacy. Strype.

ty of being crooked; hence, deformity of body or of mind; deviation from moral rectitude; perverseness.

state or quality of being incorrigible. The ingratitude, the incorrigibility, the strange perverseness . . . of mankind. Barrow.

The quality or state of being naughty; perverseness; badness; wickedness. I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart. 1 Sam. xvii. 28.

The state of being overthwart; perverseness. [Obs.] Lord Herbert.

The quality or state of being perverse; perverseness.

Deterioration; degeneracy; corruption; especially, moral crookedness; moral perversion; perverseness; depravity; as, the pravity of human nature. "The pravity of the will." South.

. Milton. A quicker and rougher remedy. Clarendon. Kind words prevent a good deal of that perverseness which rough and imperious usage often produces. Locke.

. Rowe. They were a senseless, stupid race. Swift. They would repent this their senseless perverseness when it would be too late. Clarendon. --- Sense"less*ly, adv. -- Sense"less*ness, n.

o insist. I stay here on my bond. Shak. Ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon. Isa. xxx. 12.

Crabbedness; perverseness. [Obs.]

The quality or state of being thwart; obliquity; perverseness.

Viciousness; depravity. The perverseness and vitiosity of man's will. South.