nastinesses

Noun

nastiness (countable and uncountable, plural nastinesses)

1. (uncountable) Lack of cleanliness.
   • They neither comb their Head, nor wash their Face, / But think their virtuous Nastiness a grace.1684, John Dryden, “The Eighteenth Epistle of the First Book of Horace”, in Miscellany Poems, 4th edition, volume 2, London: Jacob Tonson, published 1716, page 242
2. (uncountable) Dirt, filth.
   • [T]he helliſh Noiſe, the Roaring, Svvearing, and Clamour, the Stench and Naſtineſs, and all the dreadful croud of Afflicting things that I ſavv there; joyn'd together to make the Place ſeem an Emblem of Hell itſelf, and a kind of an Entrance into it.1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. […], London: […] W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […]; and T. Edling, […], published 1722, →OCLC, page...
3. (uncountable) Indecency; corruption; unkindness, meanness, spite, harshness, cruelty.
   • Among current novelists, Martin Amis lacks intellectual force but is well supplied with nastiness, which occasionally resembles humor.1995 September 4, John Skow, “Snobs and Wetbacks”, in Time
4. (uncountable) Unpleasantness, disagreeableness (to the senses).
   • Some medical beast had revived Tar-water in those days as a fine medicine, and Mrs. Joe always kept a supply of it in the cupboard; having a belief in its virtues correspondent to its nastiness.1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter II, in Great Expectations […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 22
5. (countable) A nasty action, object, quality, etc. (all senses of nasty).
   • If we, who are educated, habitually submit to have copper in our preserves, red-lead in our cayenne, alum in our bread, pigments in our tea, and ineffable nastinesses in our fish-sauce, what can we expect of the poor?1854, John Simon, Preface to Reports Relating to the Sanitary Condition of the City of London, London: John W. Parker & Son, page xx