stillness

plural stillnesses · alternative obsolete stillnesse

1. countableuncountableThe quality or state of being still.

   The teru-tero (Vanellus cayanensis), is another bird, which often disturbs the stillness of the night.

   1839, Charles Darwin, Journal and remarks: 1832-1836, volume 3, page 133

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   It resembled them in the sense that it was not ended, when it was past, but continued to unfold, in Watt's head, from beginning to end, over and over again, the complex connexions of its lights and shadows, the passing from silence to sound and from sound to silence, the stillness before the movement and the stillness after, the quickenings and retardings, the approaches and the separations, all the shifting detail of its march and ordinance, according to the irrevocable caprice of its taking place.

   1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC

   Synonyms: calmness, motionlessness, inactivity, inertia

2. countableuncountableHabitual silence or quiet; taciturnity.

   The grauitie, and ſtillneſſe of your youth / The world hath noted.

   c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], page 320

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   Like a heartbeat drives you mad / In the stillness of remembering what you had / And what you lost

   1977, Stevie Nicks, “Dreams”, in Rumours, performed by Fleetwood Mac

   Synonyms: quietness, silence