[f. L. coalescĕre: see -ENCE; found also in F. in 16th c.] The process or action of the vb. COALESCE.
1. Biol. The growing together of separate parts.
1541. R. Copland, Galyen’s Terapeutyke, 2 Ciij. To do away that whiche letteth the coition and coalescence.
1666. J. Smith, Old Age, 224. There immediately follows a Coalescense of all the Vessels.
1873. Mivart, Elem. Anat., 23. The coalescence of distinct bones.
1882. Syd. Soc. Lex., Coalescence of cells, the formation of tubes, or … spaces, by the absorption of the partition walls of adjoining cells.
2. Union into one mass or body.
1656. trans. Hobbes’ Elem. Philos. (1839), 418. Either there would be no coalescence at all of bodies, or they would all be gathered together into the same place.
1755. B. Martin, Mag. Arts & Sc., 283. The Water of the Cloud, as fast as it is produced by this coalescence and Condensation … must descend in Drops of Rain.
1846. Grote, Greece (1862), II. viii. 218. Patræ was formed by a coalescence of seven villages.
3. fig. (of things immaterial): Union, combination, fusion.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., I. iv. § 36. 616. Were they three independent principles, there could not be any coalescence of them into one.
1846. Grote, Greece, I. xvii. I. 614. The same coalescence of the religious with the patriotic feeling and faith.
4. The combination or uniting (of persons or parties) into a single body.
1681. Conformist’s Plea for Nonconf., 52. I am troubled, that there are any such to be found … in this Church that oppose or hinder a Coalescence.
1873. True Reformer, III. 99. Not a coalition in any sense … rather a Constitutional Coalescence.
1875. Maine, Hist. Inst., viii. 235. That thorough coalescence between two individuals which was only possible anciently when they belonged to the same family.
b. = COALITION1 4.
1788. Sir W. Young, Lett., in Dk. Buckhm., Court & Cabinets Geo. III. (1853), II. 17. It is thought that Fox’s party … will propose a coalescence of some sort.
5. A coalesced condition or group.
1748. Hartley, Observ. Man, II. iii. 287. The Tendencies … to convert accidental … Associations into permanent Coalescences.
