wantonness

Noun

wantonness (usually uncountable, plural wantonnesses)

1. (usually) The state or characteristic of being wanton; recklessness, especially as represented in lascivious or other excessive behavior.
   • The ſpirit of vvantonness is, ſure, ſcared out of him: if the devil have him not in fee-ſimple, vvith fine and recovery, he vvill never, I think, in the vvay of vvaſte, attempt us again.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
   • A vvantonneſſe in vvealth, methinks I agree not vvith, / Tis ſuch a trouble to be married too, / And have a thouſand things of great importance, / Jevvells and plates, and fooleries moleſt mee, / To have a mans brains vvhimſied with his vvealth: […]1624 (first performance), John Fletcher, Rule a Wife and Have a Wife. A Comoedy. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Leonard Lichfield […], published 1640, →OCLC, Act II, scene [ii], page 16
2. (countable, dated, usually) A particular wanton act.
   • These were simply the wantonnesses of a dishonest man.1882, John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England during the Stuart Dynasty, volume 3, Boston: Little Brown, page 366