English edit

Etymology edit

From Middle English narwenesse; equivalent to narrow +‎ -ness.

Noun edit

narrowness (countable and uncountable, plural narrownesses)

  1. (uncountable) the state of being narrow
    • 1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: [] G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] [], →OCLC:
      presently, then, I felt the stiff insertion between the yielding, divided lips of the wound, now open for life; where the narrowness no longer put me to intolerable pain, and afforded my lover no more difficulty than what heighten'd his pleasure, in the strict embrace of that tender, warm sheath, round the instrument it was so delicately adjusted to
  2. (countable) a constriction

Antonyms edit

Translations edit