a. (and sb.). Also 8 cohær-. [a. F. cohérent, ad. L. cohærēnt-em, pr. pple. of cohærēre to COHERE.]
1. That sticks or clings firmly together: esp. united by the force of cohesion. Const. to, with. Said of a substance, material, or mass, as well as of separate parts, atoms, etc.
1578. Banister, Hist. Man, I. 29. The thyrd [bone of the wrest], is with the second coherent.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 298. Most Powders grow more close and coherent by mixture of Water, than by mixture of Oyl.
1709. Blair, in Phil. Trans., XXVII. 85. The Fasciculi were more strictly coherent to one another.
1869. Roscoe, Elem. Chem., 221. The metal barium has not yet been obtained in the coherent state.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 21. These rocks are sufficiently coherent to form durable building stones.
b. spec. in Bot.: United by COHESION, q.v.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 171. Seed without its proper integuments, its testa being coherent with the utricle.
1869. Oliver, Elem. Bot., I. iv. 37. Primrose…. the sepals coherent.
† c. Coherent small-pox (see quot.). Obs.
1722. Jurin, Small Pox, in Phil. Trans., XXXII. 191. Small Pox, of that sort which is call’d the cohærent, or the middle between the distinct and the confluent kind.
2. transf. of non-material cohesion.
1655–60. Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), 184/2. If there are intelligibles, and those neither sensibles, nor coherent with sensibles.
1648. Boyle, Seraph. Love (1700), 104. Controversies … about Prædestination, and the coherent Doctrines.
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm., Wks. 1716, I. 225. Coherent with this is a … Third property of this love.
a. 1718. Penn, Tracts, Wks. 1726, I. 594. Most times Points are to be prov’d by comparing and weighing Places coherent.
1855. H. Spencer, Princ. Psychol. (1872), I. II. ii. 178. Among the successive auditory feelings there are definite and coherent combinations of groups.
1876. J. H. Newman, Hist. Sk., I. I. iii. 149. An empire, more stable, more coherent than any Turkish rule before it.
† 3. Accordant or related logically or in sense; congruent; harmoniously accordant. Obs.
c. 1555. Harpsfield, Divorce Hen. VIII. (1878), 39. These places are nothing coherent to the state of our present question.
1593. Bilson, Govt. Christ’s Ch., 100. As most coherent with the Text.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, III. vii. 39. That time and place with this deceite so lawfull May proue coherent.
4. Of thought, speech, reasoning, etc.: Of which all the parts are consistent, and hang well together.
1580. North, Plutarch (1676), 991. A Speech not coherent and hanging well together.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 879. Good Coherent Sense.
a. 1714. Burnet, Own Time (1766), I. 438. The story is so coherent.
1869. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), III. xii. 230. The Norman accounts are anything but satisfactory or coherent.
b. said of persons.
1724. Watts, Logic, III. iv. § 1. A coherent thinker, and a strict reasoner, is not to be made at once by a set of rules.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, 51. Be plain and coherent, if you please.
† B. sb. a. One who coheres or combines with others. b. That which coheres or is connected. (In quot. 1657, ‘context’; = COHERENCE 5.) Obs.
1598. Florio, Complice, a partaker, a complice, a confederate, a coherent.
1617. Markham, Caval., VIII. 17. A world of such deceits, which doe depend and are coherents to his former mischiefes.
1657. Burton’s Diary (1828), II. 306. [He] moved, that the coherents might be read, to explain it.
