apishness

Good God! What divorces, or what not worse than that, would daily happen were not the converse between a man and his wife supported and cherished by flattery, apishness, gentleness, ignorance, dissembling, certain retainers of mine also!

In Praise of Folly c. 1466-1536 1958

Not to put too fine a point upon it, we were a tinselled lot of mimes, greatly given to apishness, and shunning naked truth as though it were the plague.

The Message 1912

Shakespeare gives us a hint of the matter when he makes Portia ridicule the apishness of the English.

Outlines of English and American Literature : an Introduction to the Chief Writers of England and America, to the Books They Wrote, and to the Times in Which They Lived William Joseph Long 1909

The Hollanders are accused of mere apishness in employing the Gothic style, and of downright dulness in apprehending its import and beauty.

A Wanderer in Holland 1903

I confess the beaux with their toupee wigs make us extremely merry; and frequently put me in mind of my favorite monkey, both in figure and apishness.

Camps and Firesides of the Revolution 1902

The tiger was there, the parrot, the hare, the goat of course, and certainly much apishness.

Gaston de Latour; an unfinished romance Walter Pater 1866

But he too will there learn either to speak the truth, or to lie; and will receive from his novel lessons either of real manliness, or of that affected apishness and tailor-begotten demeanour which too many professors of the craft give out as their dearest precepts.

Thackeray Anthony Trollope 1848

With your apishness and absurdity however you have taught me one thing; and, whereas before I have winced at them with torture, I am now as tough as an elephant.

Caleb Williams Or Things as They Are William Godwin 1796

Well, I find my apishness has paid the ransom for my speech, and set it at liberty -- though, I confess, I could be well enough pleased to drive on a love-bargain in that silent manner -- 'twould save a man a world of lying and swearing at the year's end.

The Old Bachelor: a Comedy William Congreve 1699

Well, I find my apishness has paid the ransom for my speech, and set it at liberty -- though, I confess, I could be well enough pleased to drive on a love-bargain in that silent manner -- 'twould save a man a world of lying and swearing at the year's end.

The Comedies of William Congreve Volume 1 [of 2] William Congreve 1699