rascalityn.

1582 R. Parsons Def. Censure 15 For yf an enemie of mean condition should call an Englishe counceller raskall: should he not discouer therby his owne raskalitie, and lacke of witt?

1592 G. Harvey Foure Lett. 46 The thinges are paltry: and the very names sauour of rascallity.

1656 Earl of Monmouth tr. T. Boccalini Ragguagli di Parnasso i. xc. 182 Apollo having heard this wicked mans so great iniquity, and wondring that so much rascallity could be found in any one man, brake forth into these words.

1691 A. Wood Athenæ Oxonienses II. 367 He was for that and other rascallities imprison'd at Coventry.

1720 C. Molloy Half-pay Officers iii. vi. 61 First, thou shalt upon thy Knees ask Pardon for thy Rascality, before my Mistress.

1752 H. Fielding Amelia I. v. 42 This poor Gentleman had very little time to reflect on his own Misery, or the Rascality..of the other.

1800 S. T. Coleridge Coll. Lett. (1956) I. 563 Their mutual contradictions & disagreeings are united under one name, & of course are called Lies, Treachery, & Rascality!

1821 W. Cobbett Rural Rides in Cobbett's Weekly Polit. Reg. 8 Dec. 1374 It presents to us nothing of rascality and roguishness of look.

1875 B. Jowett tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) III. 304 Frauds between man and man, and the other rascalities.

1931 F. L. Allen Only Yesterday xiv. 344 Blue-sky investment companies..went to smash, disclosing miserable tales of rascality.

1996 R. Mistry Fine Balance (1997) iii. 148 What kind of rascality is this? Trying to fill up the F.I.R. with lies? You filthy achhoot castes are always out to make trouble!

2007 Africa News (Nexis) 3 Apr. A reasonable answer to this question will prove Ndibe's journalistic rascality.

1583 Sir T. Smith's De Republica Anglorum i. iv. 4 The vsurping of the rascality can neuer long endure.

1593 G. Harvey Pierces Supererogation 26 The riffe-raffe of the scribling rascality.

1620 tr. G. Boccaccio Decameron I. Induction f. 5 The base rascality of the Citie..being fatted with our blood.

1652 P. Heylyn Cosmographie ii. sig. Qq3 The chief heads of their Clans, with all the severall Rascalities depending on them.

1705 J. Vanbrugh Confederacy i. iii I love your men of rank, they have something in their air does so distinguish 'em from the rascality.

1761 J. Hall-Stevenson Fables for Grown Gentlemen iv. 21 In France..the nobility go free and clear, Like the rascality and rabble.

1803 C. K. Sharpe Let. 23 July (1888) I. 178 His lordship..keeps horses and curricles, and dogs and dog-carts, and gives dinners..to all the rascallity of Oxford.

1823 I. D'Israeli tr. Duc de Guise in Curiosities of Lit. 2nd Ser. II. 37 That aversion the rascality had for the better sort of citizens.

1871 B. Jowett tr. Plato Dialogues I. 135 You would sorrowfully desire the rascality of this part of the world.

1925 Times 6 Nov. 15/7 Carolina in the 17th century was a refuge for the rascality of the earth.

1995 Times Lit. Suppl. 18 Aug. 10/3 The Stock Exchange was able to fend off outside regulation, and to provide a home for what one member called the ‘higher rascality’.