Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The quality or condition of being narrow, in any sense of that word.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The condition or quality of being narrow.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable the state of being narrow
  • noun countable a constriction

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a restriction of range or scope
  • noun a small margin
  • noun the property of being narrow; having little width
  • noun an inclination to criticize opposing opinions or shocking behavior

Etymologies

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Examples

  • He regretted what he termed the narrowness of the Public

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1999

  • Indeed, her lifelong familiarity with what she termed the narrowness of a small community made her the more intolerant, now that its groove was closing about her for a second time.

    The Brentons Anna Chapin Ray 1905

  • Southern jealousy in this regard ultimated inevitably in Southern narrowness,

    William Lloyd Garrison The Abolitionist Archibald Henry Grimk�� 1889

  • She calls the narrowness of Woody Allen's focus "self-absorption."

    This Recording 2009

  • The Hinayana, or narrow vehicle, is not all that narrow in its view: the narrowness is the immediacy of focus on the individual practitioner himself or herself, the goal being soso tharpa (Tibetan: individual liberation from suffering in samsara).

    Hegel on Buddhism 2007

  • But the men of the clique live together because they have the same kind of soul, and their narrowness is a narrowness of spiritual coherence and contentment, like that which exists in hell.

    Heretics 1905

  • To the virtuous and deserving among the Americans, nothing can be more disagreeable than national reflections; they are, and must be, in the eyes of every judicious man, odious and contemptible, and bespeak a narrowness of soul which the virtuous are strangers to.

    An Historical Account of the Settlements of Scotch Highlanders in America 1893

  • It makes us more tolerant toward a certain narrowness, which is often provincial and sometimes almost parochial.

    Inquiries and Opinions Brander Matthews 1890

  • In reading Alfieri, I am always struck with what I may call the narrowness of his tragedies.

    Modern Italian Poets Essays and Versions William Dean Howells 1878

  • My press has no rank but from its narrowness, that is, from the paucity of its editions, and from being a volunteer.

    The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 4 Horace Walpole 1757

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