[a. F. coagulation (15th c. in Littré) or its source L. coāgulatiōn-em (Pliny), f. coāgulā-re to COAGULATE.]
1. The action or process of coagulating (as it takes place in albumen, blood, milk, etc.); clotting, curdling, ‘setting.’
1477[?]. Norton, Ord. Alch., in Ashm. v. (1652), 63. Coagulation is noe forme substantiall, But onlie passion of things materiall.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., II. iv. 82. There will ensue a coagulation, like that of whites of egges.
1804. Abernethy, Surg. Obs., 112. The closure of the artery above by the coagulation of the blood.
1882. Syd. Soc. Lex., Coagulation, term applied to that setting, solidification, or conversion into a tremulous jelly-like substance, which occurs in various animal and vegetable fluids shortly after being shed, and exposed to ordinary temperature.
b. concr. A coagulated mass.
1683. Robinson, in Ray’s Corr. (1848), 138. Volatile alkalies … free the blood from coagulations.
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Acid, If the Acid is weak, the Coagulation will only acquire a soft Consistence, as it happens in Milk curdled with the Rennet.
2. More generally. † a. Solidification by evaporation; deposition of solid matter from solution, as in crystallization. Obs.
1605. Timme, Quersit., II. i. 102. Admirable things … are to be discerned … in the preparation [of salt] … so great variety of colours, or the coagulations when the spirit returneth into the body.
1641. French, Distill., i. (1651), 9. Coagulation, is the reducing of any liquid thing to a thicker substance by evaporating the humidity.
1665–6. Phil. Trans., I. 29. Dissolutions and Coagulations of several Crystallizing Salt.
1718. J. Chamberlayne, Relig. Philos. (1730), II. xiii. § 11. A Precipitation or Coagulation.
† b. Condensation (of vapor, etc.). Obs.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric., xiv. § 1 (1681), 292. The same density or coagulation of the Air represents the Matutine or Vespertine Sun or Moon larger unto our sight than at other times.
1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., IV. lii. 452. So extraordinary a coagulation and congelation in the watery clouds.
† c. Coagulated or solidified state. Obs.
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., 298. The Water … mingled it self … with the superficies of the Terrestrial sediment … so far as it could pierce, until it were excluded by the denser coagulation of the Earth.
3. The act or process of forming or uniting into a mass; concretion, cohesion.
1610. Healey, St. Aug. Citie of God, XI. v. (1620), 391. Hee [Epicurus] makes all his worlds of the casuall coagulation of atomes.
1750. trans. Leonardus’ Mirr. Stones, 23. Inducing the Form of the Stone by the Help of terrestrial Coagulation.
b. fig.
1622. T. Scott, Belg. Pismire, 28. Not that heereby I intend to disparage the Nobilitie … but rather to preserve it intire from mixture and coagulation.
1864. Kirk, Chas. Bold, II. IV. ii. 250. Every where but in France the process of coagulation was, not merely imperfect, but locally confined.
c. concr. A mass formed by concretion.
1664. Evelyn, Diary (1857), I. 402. It looked like a fungus … yet was a concretion, or coagulation, of some other matter.
fig. 1865. Masson, Rec. Brit. Philos., vii. 387. A … coagulation of phænomena, called feelings.
