v. [a. F. cohabiter, ad. late L. cohabitāre to dwell together, f. co- together + habitāre to dwell; see HABIT.]
1. intr. To dwell or live together (with). arch.
1601. F. Godwin, Bps. of Eng., 201. A certaine number of schollers to cohabite with the Cannons.
1667. South, Serm. Ps. lxxxvii. 2. They were not able to cohabit with that Holy Thing [the Ark].
1726. De Foe, Hist. Devil, I. xi. (1840), 174. The wise and righteous generation that we cohabit with and among.
1809. Kendall, Trav., I. vii. 63. All that … do cohabit within this jurisdiction.
b. fig. of things.
1653. Walton, Angler, i. 33. I do easily believe that peace, and patience, and a calm content did cohabit in the cheerful heart of Sir Henry Wotton.
1682. Wheler, Journ. Greece, I. 40. In Water the contrary Qualities of Gravity and Levity cohabit together.
1759. B. Martin, Nat. Hist. Eng., I. 214. As if rural Sweetness, and external Elegance and Neatness cohabited there.
2. To live together as husband and wife: often said distinctively of persons not legally married.
c. 1530. More, in Fisher’s Wks., II. 51. He should … make it a matter of great conscience to cohabit with her, being not his lawfull wife.
1660. R. Coke, Power & Subj., 78. The Church … may compel the husband to allow his wife alimony, if without sufficient cause he shall refuse to cohabit with her.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 149, ¶ 4. Ordinary Marriages, or rather Bargains to cohabit.
1827. J. Powell, Devises, II. 345. In case he should have any child or children by M. A. S. (a woman with whom he cohabited).
† 3. trans. To inhabit together. Obs.
1722. Journey through Eng., I. 123. It is plain we are not quite in Heaven here … a Place cohabited by Innocence and Guilt, by Folly and Fraud from the Beginning.
