narrowness

English

Etymology

From Middle English narwenesse; equivalent to narrow +‎ -ness.

Noun

narrowness (countable and uncountable, plural narrownesses)

  1. (uncountable) The state of being narrow.
    • 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:
      presently, then, I felt the stiff insertion between the yielding, divided lips of the wound, now open for life; where the narrowness no longer put me to intolerable pain, and afforded my lover no more difficulty than what heighten'd his pleasure, in the strict embrace of that tender, warm sheath, round the instrument it was so delicately adjusted to
    • 1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 141:
      “You will understand me when I say that it was a deadly life for a girl brought up as I had been. The narrowness, the deadly monotony of it, almost drove me mad.”
  2. (countable) A constriction; a narrow passage or place; an instance or aspect of being narrow, or having a limited scope or extent.

Antonyms

Translations

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