Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Contrariety
Conˊtra-ri′e-ty
Noun.
pl.
Contrarieties
(#)
. [L.
contrarietas
: cf. F. contrariété
.] 1.
The state or quality of being contrary; opposition; repugnance; disagreement; antagonism.
There is a
contrariety
between those things that conscience inclines to, and those that entertain the senses. South.
2.
Something which is contrary to, or inconsistent with, something else; an inconsistency.
Syn. – Inconsistency; discrepancy; repugnance.
Webster 1828 Edition
Contrariety
CONTRARIETY
,Noun.
1.
Opposition in fact, essence, quality or principle; repugnance. The expedition failed by means of a contrariety of winds. There is a contrariety in the nature of virtue and vice; of love and hatred; of truth and falsehood. Among men of the same profession, we find a contrariety of opinions.2.
Inconsistency; quality or position destructive of its opposite.How can these contrarieties agree.
Definition 2024
contrariety
contrariety
English
Noun
contrariety (plural contrarieties)
- Opposition or contrariness; cross-purposes, marked contrast.
- 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, II.12:
- What differences of sense and reason, what contrarietie of imaginations doth the diversitie of our passions present unto us?
- 1759, Laurence Sterne, The Life & Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Penguin 2003, p.61:
- This contrariety of humours betwixt my father and my uncle, was the source of many a fraternal squabble.
- 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island:
- The wind blowing steady and gentle from the south, thee was no contrariety between that and the current, and the billows rose and fell unbroken.
- 2011, Tim Blanning, "The reinvention of the night", Times Literary Supplement, 21 Sep.:
- At the heart of his argument is the contrariety between day and night, light and dark.
- 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, II.12: