luxuriancy

plural luxuriancies

1. countableobsoleteuncountableObsolete form of luxuriance.

   Olivia, now about eighteen, had that luxuriancy of beauty with which painters generally draw Hebe; open, sprightly, and commanding.

   1766, Oliver Goldsmith, chapter 1, in The Vicar of Wakefield

   3 more examples

   The province abounds with vast forests of timber; the plains are covered with a surprising luxuriancy of vegetables, flowers, and flowering shrubs, diffusing the most delicious fragrance.

   1688, Tobias Smollett, The History of England in Three Volumes, volume 2

   In short, we should have been continually endeavoring, following the luxuriancy of female imagination, to render more charming the sweet abodes of love and friendship; whilst our heroes, changing their swords into plough-shares, and engaged in more substantial, more profitable labors, were clearing land, raising cattle and corn, and doing every thing becoming good farmers; or, to express it more poetically, "Taming the genius of the stubborn plain, Almost as quickly as they conquer'd Spain:" By which I would be understood to mean the Havannah, where, vanity apart, I am told both of them did their duty, and a little more, if a man can in such a case be said to do more.

   1769, Frances Brooke, The History of Emily Montague

   A great luxuriancy of trees of unknown species, was soon observed to overspread the land, whence unknown birds of beautiful plumage came off in flocks to the vessel, and gave the appearance of a pleasing dream to their unexpected deliverance.

   1824, Robert Kerr, A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, volume 2