unforgivingness

unforgiving +‎ -ness

unforgivingness (uncountable)

1. The quality of being unforgiving.
   • 1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, Volume, Chapter ,

     But now they are sufficiently cleared from every imputation of unforgivingness; for, while I appeared to them in the character of a vile hypocrite, pretending to true penitence, yet giving up myself to profligate courses, how could I expect either their pardon or blessing?

   • 1818, Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, Chapter 12,

     She knew not how such an offence as hers might be classed by the laws of worldly politeness, to what a degree of unforgivingness it might with propriety lead, nor to what rigours of rudeness in return it might justly make her amenable.

   • 1888, James Russell Lowell, “Credidimus Jovem Regnare” in Heartsease and Rue, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., p. 185,

     And yet I frankly must confess

     A secret unforgivingness,

     And shudder at the saving chrism

     Whose best New Birth is Pessimism;

   • 1970, Tamara Talbot Rice, Elizabeth, Empress of Russia, Praeger, p. 105,

     They had spent their entire lives as prisoners in Siberia and they now appealed to the empress for their release. In a rare instance of unforgivingness Elizabeth refused to grant it.