v.; also 7 adhære. [a. Fr. adhére-r (15th c. in Litt.), ad. L. adhærē-re to stick to, f. ad to + hærē-re to stick.]
1. intr. To stick fast, to cleave, to become or remain firmly attached, to a substance, as by a glutinous surface, or by grasping, etc.
1651. Rawleigh’s Ghost, 96. The stalks do not adhere or cleave to the boughes by any fibræ.
1764. Reid, Inq. Hum. Mind, v. § 2. 120. When the parts of a body adhere so firmly that it cannot easily be made to change its figure, we call it hard.
1849. Ruskin, Seven Lamps, iii. § 22. 90. These mouldings nearly adhere to the stone.
1860. Tyndall, Glaciers, I. § 3. 30. The fragments of snow that adhered to the staff.
Mod. These labels do not adhere well.
b. fig.
c. 1620. A. Hume, Orthogr. Brit. Tong. (1865), 32. An adverb is a word adhering mast commonlie with a verb.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., II. xli. 517. Flattery adheres to power, and envy to superior merit.
1854. J. Abbott, Napoleon (1855), II. xxx. 559. A straggling village adhered to the sides of a vast ravine.
2. To cleave to a person or party; to be a close companion, partizan or follower.
1597. Bacon, Ess. (Arb.), 76. Meane men must adheare, but great men, that haue strength in themselues, were better to maintaine themselues indifferent, and neutrall.
1602. Shaks., Haml., II. ii. 21. Two men there are not liuing To whom he more adheres.
1651. Hobbes, Leviathan, I. xi. 49. It disposeth men to adhære, and subject themselves to those men.
1690. Luttrell, Brief Rel., II. (1857), 124. High treason in adhering to the King’s enemies.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 129. These people … with few exceptions, adhered to the Church of Rome.
1865. Grote, Plato, I. iv. 165. Thrasyllus adhered to Aristophanes on so many disputable points.
† b. refl. Obs.
1633. Stafford, Pac. Hib., xxiv. (1821), 448. Or haue combined, or adhered themselves to any her majestie’s enemies.
3. To cleave to an opinion, practice or method; to continue to maintain or observe. To adhere to a decision, etc.: to confirm or approve it by a subsequent decision.
1656. Bramhall, Replie, 42. In things not necessary a man may fluctuate safely between two opinions … without certain adherence, or adhere certainly without Faith.
1756. Burke, Vind. Nat. Soc., Wks. I. 64. The lawyer has his positive institutions too, and he adheres to them with veneration.
1772. Junius Lett., lxviii. 338. In one instance, the very form is adhered to.
1879. B. Taylor, Germ. Lit., 68. I shall adhere to the plan stated in the beginning of these lectures.
† 4. without const. To be coherent, to ‘hang together,’ as a story; to be consistent with itself or with circumstances, to agree. Obs. rare.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., II. i. 62. They doe no more adhere and keep place together, then the hundred Psalms to the tune of Greensleeues. Ibid. (1605), Macb., I. vii. 52. Nor time, nor place Did then adhere, and yet you would make both.
5. Bot. To be naturally united or soldered to what is normally an unlike part, as a distinct whorl of the inflorescence; to be adnate.
1857. Henfrey, Bot., 94. Adhesion may exist between the inner and outer circles of the floral envelopes … or the calyx, corolla, and stamens may all adhere to the pistil.
