v. [ad. L. collīdĕre to strike or clash together, f. col- together + lædĕre to injure, damage.]
1. trans. To bring into collision or violent contact, strike or dash together. Now rare or Obs.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. xi. II. vi. The outward [ayre] being stroke or collided by a solide body.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 52. The inflamable effluencies discharged from the bodies collided.
1755. Johnson, Collide, v.a., to strike against each other; to beat, to dash, to knock together.
1871. M. Collins, Inn of Strange Meetings, 18.
| I, whom dreams encumber, | |
| By the keen clash of gross events collided. |
2. intr. To come into collision, come forcibly into contact, strike or dash together.
(When first used of railway trains or ships in collision, c. 1860–70, it was much objected to as an Americanism.)
1700. Dryden, Fables, Pythag. Philos., 14. The flints … thus toss’d in air, collide.
1746. R. James, Introd. Moufet’s Health’s Improv., 9. The Blood collides against the Sides of the Aorta.
1850. Carlyle, Latter-d. Pamph., iv. 22. Tumble and rage along, ye rotten waifs and wrecks; clash and collide.
1866. Tyndall, in Fortn. Rev., III. 135. The attraction urges them [atoms]. They collide, they recoil.
1886. Daily News, 14 Dec., 2/8. Charles, brigantine, in entering the harbour … collided with Sparkling Foam, barquentine.
3. fig. To come into collision or be in conflict; to clash, conflict.
1864. Sir F. Palgrave, Norm. & Eng., IV. 326. How often would he not collide against the Bishop of Sorimum?
1875. Poste, Gaius, I. Comm. (ed. 2), 152. Overruling the ordinary course of law where it collided with equity.
1880. G. Duff, in 19th Cent., No. 38. 667. Our interests would be about as likely to collide as those of a shark and a tiger.
b. To come together (without conflict). rare.
1877. ‘H. A. Page,’ De Quincey, II. xix. 191. In great crises their interests collide and harmonise to augment the stability of institutions.
Hence Collided ppl. a., Colliding vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1852), I. 345. By the collision of flint and steel … particles detached from the colliding bodies.
1865. Lecky, Ration., II. vi. 386. To restrain the action of colliding passions.
1883. Daily Tel, 25 June, 5/6. The head-gear of the colliding vessel—the Hurunui—became entangled in the mizzen rigging of the Waitara.
