noxiousnessn.

1655 H. L'Estrange Reign King Charles 7 That there was any intrinsique noxiousnesse in it... I am yet to be convinced.

1691 T. Hale Acct. New Inventions 42 This suggestion of the noxiousness of Lead to Iron-work.

1777 W. Robertson Hist. Amer. (1778) II. vii. 338 The peculiar noxiousness of its climate has prevented Porto-bello from increasing in the same proportion.

1799 C. B. Brown Arthur Mervyn I. xviii. 174 The element which I breathed appeared to have stagnated into noxiousness and putrifaction.

1838 N. Amer. Rev. Oct. 393 He insists on entertaining you with his speculations on the noxiousness of what you with a good relish are devouring.

1862 G. Wilson Religio Chemici 29 Conferring the character of noxiousness to vegetable and animal life.

1888 Scribner's Mag. Jan. 98/1 Either these things do not tempt the Frenchman, or his intelligence perceives their noxiousness, or he yields to them with his eyes open.

1934 Mind 43 11 It may still happen that the noxiousness of the temptation does not affect him so powerfully as its allurement, and that he succumbs.

1984 B. Heinrich In Patch of Fireweed x. 123 If crowding together by these beetles is a strategy to amplify their noxiousness, then they are not unique.