v. Also 7–8 cohære. [ad. L. cohær-ēre to cleave together, f. co- together + hærēre to stick, cleave.]
1. intr. To cleave or stick together; esp. said of the constituent parts of a material substance.
1616. Bullokar, Cohere, to cleaue, sticke or hang together.
1665. Glanvill, Sceps. Sci., vii. 35. Particles of matter, which by reason of their figures, will not cohære or lye together, but in such an order.
1742. H. Baker, Microsc., II. vii. 106. When the Globules of the Blood cohere in Masses too large.
1839. G. Bird, Nat. Philos., 14. Two freshly-cut surfaces of caoutchouc will, on being pressed together, cohere so tightly that it is scarcely possible to separate them.
1879. Rutley, Study Rocks, ii. 6. The grains simply cohere without any perceptible cement.
b. Said of the substance, mass, or body whose parts so stick together.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Sickness, When the Cloud … Coheres in a body without parting.
1864. Kinglake, Crimea, II. 418. The hard mass became fluid. It still cohered.
c. spec. in Bot.: see COHESION and COHERING.
1796. De Serra, in Phil. Trans., LXXXVI. 501. In this case, gems never cohere, the abortive one falls.
2. transf. of non-material things, societies, etc.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 1340. That natures parmanent and divine, should cohere unto themselves inseparably.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 160, ¶ 5. There are others [natures] which immediately cohere whenever they come into the reach of mutual attraction.
1855. H. Spencer, Princ. Psychol. (1872), I. II. ii. 180. Feelings of different orders cohere with one another less strongly than do feelings of the same order.
1865. Lecky, Ration., II. iv. 71. A complete dissolution of the moral principles by which society coheres.
3. Of persons: To stick together; to unite or remain united in action.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., III. xlii. 316. No one man so much as cohæring to another.
1670. Cotton, Espernon, II. VII. 308. By cohering with other persons of condition.
1871. Darwin, Desc. Man, I. v. 162. Selfish and contentious people will not cohere.
4. To be congruous in substance, tenor, or general effect; to be consistent.
1598. Yong, Diana, 248. That one [assertion] cohereth but ill with the other.
a. 1619. Fotherby, Atheom., I. xiii. (1622), 137. They deny him to haue any knowledge in him, whom yet they acknowledge to bee the most High. Things, that cannot cohere.
1679. Shadwell, True Widow, 29. That Trimming … does not cohere with your Complexion at all.
1856. Mrs. Browning, Aur. Leigh, II. 1219. To draw my uses to cohere with needs.
1862. Trench, Mirac., xxxii. 448. Nothing … cohered more intimately with the purpose of his Gospel.
† b. To combine congruously, agree. Obs.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., V. i. 259. Till each circumstance, Of place, time, fortune, do co-here and iumpe That I am Viola. Ibid. (1603), Meas. for M., II. i. 11. Had time coheard with Place, or place with wishing.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 190. Though this Nation disagree in sundry fantasies, yet cohere they in this one.
c. ‘To be well connected; to follow regularly in the order of discourse’ (J.).
1795. Burke, Thoughts on Scarcity, Pref. (T.). They have been inserted, where they best seemed to Cohere.
d. To be coherent, to ‘hang together’ as a composition. ? Obs.
1828. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), I. 214. The piece does not properly cohere.
† 5. To be associated, to remain with. Obs.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 23. This Ile was then gouerned by a Queene, but the rule coheres at other times with Kings.
† 6. passive. To be united. Obs. rare.
1606. Ford, Honor Tri. (1843), 29. In a perfect lover … all these three are judicially cohered.
