Noun
The quality of being preposterous.
Usage- Uncountable
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“Dresses in such bad taste!” smiled Miss Marguerita—Marguerita was a model of preposterosity in fashion.
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[…] as to the gentleman’s ideal of preposterosity—that this proposition is too preposterous to be considered for a moment—in more than half the States of the Union, the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court is limited.
[…] if anybody had the temerity then to predict that an acre of lawn could be sown down some day at a nominal cost of as many shillings as it would then require pounds to effect, there would have been no end of opinions upon the preposterosity of the assertion, if there is such a word.
The peculiarity of Satan’s religion is its preposterosity, i. e., putting the cart before the horse.
More examples (4)
All these obstructive oddities, I think, have developed as separate ideals because of the grand preposterosity of Professionalism that has created a world-wide cult of mutual incomprehensibility and disconnected special goals.
His latest book, “Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories” (Random House, $2.95) is an example of what [Theodor] Geisel calls his “logical preposterosity.”
Rumor and gossip, like sound itself, appear to travel by wave-effect, sheer preposterosity being no barrier.
When the microphones clustered and the red lights of the TV cameras began to glow, Faubus became a caricature of his usual, canny self—but a highly effective one as he discovered that sophisticated outlanders of the press corps, no less than red-necked voters at the branch-heads, could be diverted by sheer preposterosity.
Something that is preposterous.
Usage- Countable
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More examples (4)
The awkwardness of your feelings during an interview with Mr. Lambert, or any other polished Monster on public view—with the painful restraint laid by your delicacy on your curiosity, as to the particulars of his preposterosities.
Had Pliny turned his attention to the more elevated parts of the body, we might perhaps have found that the structure of their heads was equally retrograde with that of their heels; and on this principle some modern Gothic preposterosities might be accounted for, which have hitherto appeared totally inexplicable.
[…]—they return in the preposterosities of fashion, in the thirst for pleasurable gratifications, with a confusion of ideas floating in their brain, similar to the evaporations of intoxicating wine, with airy and unreal taste—[…]
The happy pair thus suitably united, are not only still extant, but the annual fancy-ball given at Cheltenham by Lieut.-Colonel Wegg and the Dowager Lady Askham, is one of the grandest affairs of the season in that city of preposterosities; […]
Now, the idea of fraud is the utmost absurdity, the utmost preposterosity.
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That hotel was remarkably rich in humours outside, for there was a donkey-boys’ stand opposite, and camels often used to stand there, and the law-court was just up the road, and the high road from Karnak entered Luxor at this point. You had only to sit on a chair on the verandah to take notes and photographs of the preposterosities of native life all day long.
“Hollywood is a gorgeous preposterosity. It can’t exist and yet here it is. Everyone here is purely objective. They don’t believe anything because somebody says it’s true. They don’t take any textbook’s word for a darn thing. They want to find out about everything for themselves. It’s amazing, magnificent. They’re so alive.” This is Jack Barrymore’s opinion of the “movie city” which he has grown to love after declaring his one love was for the stage.
AS A LONGTIME ADMIRER of man’s ability to believe any preposterosity that soothes him, I was especially pleased to read of the July 1, 1978, death of Major Claude Robert Eatherly, United States Army Air Corps, discharged.
This was surely, he was now concluding, the most preposterous of preposterosities, that a fish could travel, that a fish could go on the road.
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And yet, ironically, the campesinos were reticent to embrace preposterosities unless witnessing the fantasmic for themselves.
‘I don’t want to let Argus and Amarella down,’ Aurelie interrupted. / The two brothers swapped looks before firmly sandwiching their niece between them. ‘How could you possibly do that?’ Rolo asked. / ‘In fact, I think that is a distinct impossibility,’ Rindolf nodded. / ‘A preposterosity.’ / Aurelie smiled. ‘That’s not a word.’ / Rolo threw his head back. ‘It is now.’