irregularityn.

1598 J. Florio Worlde of Wordes Irregolarita, irregularitie.

1616 J. Bullokar Eng. Expositor Irregularitie, a going out of right rule, etc.

1651 T. Hobbes Leviathan ii. xxix. 172 To what Disease..I may exactly compare this irregularity of a Common-wealth.

1654 R. Whitlock Ζωοτομία 267 Such is the irregularity of Custome, it doth not extoll things because worthy, but thinks them worthy, because they are extolled.

1738 tr. C. Rollin Anc. Hist. (ed. 2) I. Pref. p. ix A holiness that will not allow of the least irregularity.

1781 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall (1869) I. xxii. 622 He acknowledges the irregularity of his own election.

1829 J. Bentham Justice & Codif. Petit., Petit. Justice 91 With the word irregularity sentiments of disapprobation have, from the earliest time of life, stood associated.

1870 M. Bridgman Robert Lynne I. vii. 98 Selwyn was regular only in irregularity.

1882 Med. Temp. Jrnl. No. 52. 168 Great irregularity of living, during which he drank constantly large quantities of whisky.

1483 Cath. Angl. 198/2 An irregularite, irregularitas.

1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage 28 A deformitie, irregularitie, and unlawfulnesse in our naturall condition.

1688 N. Luttrell Diary in Brief Hist. Relation State Affairs (1857) I. 487 Some of them committed some irregularities at Gravesend.

1755 S. Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. Pref. I found it necessary to distinguish those irregularities that are inherent in our tongue, and perhaps coeval with it, from others which the ignorance or negligence of later writers has produced.

1804 W. Tennant Indian Recreat. (ed. 2) I. 150 In a rude age..crimes and irregularities are more frequent.

1840 T. B. Macaulay Ranke's Hist. in Ess. (1865) II. 137/2 An easy well-bred man of the world, who knew how to make allowance for the little irregularities of people of fashion.

a1862 H. T. Buckle Hist. Civilisation Eng. (1869) III. v. 444 To generalize such irregularities, or in other words to show that they are not irregularities at all.

a1300 Cursor Mundi 27253 Enentes clergis seculers..if he in hali order be, In scrift þe preist agh spere of irregularite.

c1380 J. Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 87 Ofte tymes ben priistis irreguler, for þe multitude of soulis þat þei sleen þus; and þis irregularite is moore for to drede þan irregularite chargid of þe worlde.

1502 tr. Ordynarye of Crysten Men (de Worde) iv. vi. sig. s.iii ^v Of symony, of irregularyte, of sacrylege, of y^e euyll dyspendynge of the patrymonye of Ihesu cryste.

1590 H. Swinburne Briefe Treat. Test. & Willes ii. f. 56 Apostasie of irregularity is, when he that hath entred into the ministery and taken holy orders, forsaketh his spirituall profession.

1608 A. Willet Hexapla in Exodum 773 The Romanists obseruation..of irregularitie..that allow none to be admitted to orders which haue bin shedders of blood.

1658 E. Phillips New World Eng. Words Irregularity,..also an incapacity of taking holy orders, as being maimed, or very deformed, base-born, or guilty of any hainous crime, a Term in Canon-law.

1885 W. E. Addis & T. Arnold Catholic Dict. (ed. 3) 885 Irregularity is defined as a ‘canonical impediment, which prevents a person from entering the ranks of the clergy, from rising to a higher order, or from exercising the order which he has received’ (Gury)... The division of irregularities which still prevails among canonists and theologians, viz. into such as proceed from defect (ex defectu), and from crime (ex delicto)..is a convenient one, but it is not strictly scientific. In reality irregularity is always ‘ex defectu’.

1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica vii. xiii. 365 Sometimes it observed not that certaine course. And this irregularity..together with its unruly and tumultuous motion might afford a beginning unto the common opinion. View more context for this quotation

1665 R. Hooke Micrographia 3 The irregularity of the Type or Ingraving.

1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth I. 273 The waves roll against land with great weight and irregularity.

1816 H. Douglas Ess. Mil. Bridges iii. 91 The irregularity of the ground on the left bank would have occasioned many delays.

1853 J. Ruskin Stones of Venice II. vi. 176 The tendency to the adoption of Gothic types being always first shown by greater irregularity and richer variation in the forms of the architecture it is about to supersede.

1879 Cassell's Techn. Educator vii. 34/2 The irregularity in the thickness of some seams.

1880 A. Gray Struct. Bot. vi. §4. 219 Irregularity is one of the commonest modifications of the flower: it is never conspicuous except in blossoms visited by insects and generally fertilized by their aid.

1665 R. Hooke Micrographia 91 The bigger they were magnify'd, the more irregularities appear'd in them.

1678 J. Moxon Mech. Exercises I. ii. 20 File down all the irregularities the cold Chissel made on the edges of your work.

1861 ‘G. Eliot’ Silas Marner i. 4 Marner, pausing to adjust an irregularity in his thread.

1879 Cassell's Techn. Educator (new ed.) IV. 95/1 The physical irregularities of the terrain.