Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as obscenity.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • As for the children, who had no knowledge of God, and who learnt songs of ribaldry and obsceneness as soon as they began to speak, he formed them so well in a little time, that they publicly recited the Christian doctrine, and set up little altars in the streets, about which they sung together the hymns of the Catholic church.

    The Works of John Dryden Dryden, John, 1631-1700 1808

  • All of them profited by his sermons, and in little time nothing was heard amongst them, which was offensive to the honour of God, or that wounded Christian charity; or touched upon obsceneness, or ill manners.

    The Works of John Dryden Dryden, John, 1631-1700 1808

  • His discourse at table was scandalously unbecoming the dignity of his station; noise, brutality, and obsceneness.

    The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. — Volume 09 Contributions to The Tatler, The Examiner, The Spectator, and The Intelligencer Jonathan Swift 1706

  • As for the children, who had no knowledge of God, and who learnt songs of ribaldry and obsceneness as soon as they began to speak, he formed them so well in a little time, that they publicly recited the Christian doctrine, and set up little altars in the streets, about which they sung together the hymns of the Catholic church.

    The works of John Dryden, $c now first collected in eighteen volumes. $p Volume 16 John Dryden 1665

  • All of them profited by his sermons, and in little time nothing was heard amongst them, which was offensive to the honour of God, or that wounded Christian charity; or touched upon obsceneness, or ill manners.

    The works of John Dryden, $c now first collected in eighteen volumes. $p Volume 16 John Dryden 1665

  • But in this translation we must only serve necessity (nam temere nihil transfertur a prudenti) {111b} or commodity, which is a kind of necessity: that is, when we either absolutely want a word to express by, and that is necessity; or when we have not so fit a word, and that is commodity; as when we avoid loss by it, and escape obsceneness, and gain in the grace and property which helps significance.

    Discoveries Made Upon Men and Matter and Some Poems Ben Jonson 1605

  • Or to avoid obsceneness, or sometimes for pleasure, and variety, as travellers turn out of the highway, drawn either by the commodity of a footpath, or the delicacy or freshness of the fields.

    Discoveries Made Upon Men and Matter and Some Poems Ben Jonson 1605

  • we were not asked about the obsceneness of spending on clothes.

    How Gay Are You? Kerron Cross 2006

  • a mournful day of it; and they all of them forgot their prayers and sacrifices, and betook themselves to lamentation and weeping; so great an affliction did the impudent obsceneness of a single soldier bring upon them.

    Antiquities of the Jews Flavius Josephus 1709

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