Here - Norm's Book Club

VASTNESS.
15*3 Shaks. Lucr. 1740 Who. like a latesackd island,
vastly iXood Bare and unpeopled in this fearful flood.
2. Immensely; to an exieut or degree not readily
graspetl or estimated.
1664 Power Ejc^. Pkiios. Pref. 17 Tbough these hopes b«
v.istly hyperbohad. 1676 E rw:RiiDGK Man 0/ Madt i. i,
Why, first she's an Heiress vastly rich. 1708 J. Chamber-
1_\VXK St. Gt. Bt-it. (1710) 7 It hath many safe and commodious
Ports and Havens, as Falmouth vastly spacious.
X73» Berkeley Alcipkr. iiu IsThis vastly great, or minute
power and wisdom. 186a CornhiU Ma^. Jan. 73 Popular
power has increased vastly during the last half-century in
our own country. xWsManch. Exam. 4 April 4/6 A pohcy
which will add so vastly to its influence and power.
b. Freq. with words or phrases denoting com-
p.irison.
1665 Gi.ANViii Def. I'aJi. D^^tfi. 25 When the Actions
whereby ihey are produced are so vastly diverse. 1693
AjM, Clersy Scat, us In a sense vastly different from what
was intended by Mr. Rule. 1710 J. Clarke tT,A0Aau/ts
Xat. PJki/os. (1729) I. I. ii- S3 The Bullet will be carried
vastly further than the small SIioL 1778 Sheridan Cainp
IL iii. To be sure, a circus or a crescent would have been vastly
better. xSso Hazliit TabU-T. Ser. ii. xvi. {1869) 322 You
have got on vastly beyond the point at which you have set
out. 1846 Greener Scu Gunnery 229 It is of trifling censequence
. . that the explasion of sporting powder is vastly more
rapid and powerful. 1879 Tourgee Foots^ Err. xxii. 134 The
Union people liere are vastly in a minority.
3. In weakened sense as a mere intensive : Exceedingly,
extremely, very. (Cf. Vast a. 5.)
Common in fashionable use in the 18th cent., chiefly with
adjs. \a\ but occasionally with vbs. ih) or advs. (c). The
abuse of vast and vastly is commented on by Lord Chester-
field, Lett. No, 195 and 196.
(a) 1664 Vermy Mem. (1907) II. 204 She putts on and
assumes much, very much of the vastly extravagant humor^.
i7» De Foe Piague {\jsi) 219 The City.. was vastly full of
People. 1733 T. Burnet MS. Let. 30 Jan,, Believe me most
affectionately, though vastly peevish, Yours T. B. 178a
Miss Burney Cecilia vi. xi, This is all v.istly true; but I
have no time to hear any more of it just now. x8a6 J.
Foster in Life ff Corr. (1S46) II. 78 A vastly acute and
doggedly intellectual fellow. 1850 Thackeray Pendennis
xxn, Mrs. Portman..was vastly bitter against Pen. .since
his impertinent behaviour to the Doctor. 187a Black Adv.
Phaeton vi. 68 That small person.. was becoming vastly
indignant
{b) 1750 H. Walpole Lett. (1846) II. 358, 1 laughed vastly.
X766 GoLDSM. I'icar xii, I prote.st I like my Lady Blarney
vastly. ci83o Arab. Nts. (Rtldg.) 234, I should vastly like
to examine this little hunchback a Utile more closely. 1879
Mrs. Macquoid Berksh. Lady 182 That will please me vastly.
(c) 1756 Mrs. Calderwood in Coltness Collect. (Maitland
Club) 127 He.. sung vastly fine. 1799 Sheridan Piznrro
Prol., An't yon come vastly late? 18x4 Jane Austen Lady
Susan XV, She talks vastly well. 1837 Lvtton E. Maltravers
5 .\s for bed, this chair will do vastly well.
Vastnesa (vastnes). [f. Vast a.]
1 1. Desolation ; waste. Obs. rare.
1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. \\. vii. §7 Because their excursions
into the limits of phy^cal causes hath hied a vastness
and solitude in that tract. 1643 Sir E. Bering Sp. on Relig.
87 This Bill doth seem to me an uncouth wilderne.sse, a l
dismall vastnesse, |
2. The quality of being vast ; immensity.
1607 Beaum. & Ku Woman Hater \\\. iii, Could the Sea
throw up his vastness, And offer free his best inhabitants.
1867 Milton P. L. vn. 472 Scarse from his mould Behemotli
biggest born of Earth upheav*d His vastness. 1698 Fryer
Ace. E. India ^ P. 12 The swelling Surges menace the
lowering Skies, leaving a Hollow where they borrowed their
Gigantine Vastness. 1794 Mrs. Uadclifke Myst, Udolpho
vi, Emily gazed with enthusiasm on the vastness of the sea.
1838 De Morgan' Eis. Probab, 24 When we speak of tlie
vastness, the regularity, and the permanency of the solar
system. i886 RuSKiN Proeterila I. vi. 199 The vastness of
scale in the Milanese palaces.. impressed nie..at once.
fig. 1601 B. JoNSON Poetaster v. iii. The open vastnesse of
a tyrannes eare. 1873 Helps Anint. ^ Mast. i. 8 You will
be able to appreciate the vastness of this area of cruelly.
b. Of immaterial things.
i6aa Fletcher Prophetess 11. i. You have bloA-n his swoln
pride to that vastness, As he believes the Earth is in his
fathom. 1638 Vertiey Mem. (1907) II. 77 The vastnesse of
my affection. 1850TESNVSON In Mem. xcvii. I look'd on
these and thought of thee In vastness and in mystery. 1889
KusKiN Prgeterita IIL 146 The vastness of Scott's true
historical knowledge.
3, A vast or immense space.
1674 N. Fairfax Bulk