[f. L. type *conflux-us (u- stem), f. conflux, ppl. stem of confluĕre to flow together; prob. used in med. or mod.L.: cf. late L. influxus. (No Fr. correspondent.)]
1. Flowing together; flowing into a common body; = CONFLUENCE 1.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. iii. 7. As knots by the conflux of meeting sap, Infect the sound Pine.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., xxix. (1748), 380. Thus from the full conflux of these three several springs Thy greatness is begot.
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., 178. There is not onely a consent between the Veins of the Womb and Breast, but a conflux also.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., II. 6. The river Lycus, formed by the conflux of two little streams.
b. quasi-concr.
1658. A. Fox, Wurtz’ Surg., I. vi. 24. A conflux of ill humours comes to it.
1693. Evelyn, De la Quint. Compl. Gard., 56. Both being so stopt, there is a great Conflux of Water made in a certain Tract of Land.
2. Meeting-place of streams; = CONFLUENCE 2.
1712. W. Rogers, Voy., 71. A Spanish town built at the Conflux of the Rivers.
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., I. 279. At the conflux of the Anio with the Tiber, we reach the extreme point of the Sabine territory.
fig. 1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res. (1858), 40. Stands he not … in the centre of Immensities, in the conflux of Eternities?
b. Meeting place of lines or tracts.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., III. xxxiv. 499. Others have this diverging space above their conflux.
1847. Todd, Cycl. Anat., III. 640/1. The posterior conflux, is situated below and behind the cerebellum.
3. = CONFLUENCE 4.
1614. Selden, Titles Hon., 105. Vpon the new doctrine great conflux was to the new Doctor.
1699. Bentley, Phal., 402. Consider the great conflux of Strangers to that City.
1836. Macgillivray, trans. Humboldt’s Trav., xxiv. 361. The great conflux of sick persons to the hospitals.
4. = CONFLUENCE 5.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb. (1702), I. III. 160. Attended by a marvellous conflux of Company.
1710. Hearne, Collect., 4 March, II. 351. He was convey’d … to Westminster Hall by a … prodigious Conflux of ye Mob.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 280. The conflux of several populations might be more disposed to listen to new laws.
5. = CONFLUENCE 6.
1654. Hobbes, Liberty & Necess. (1841), 230. A conflux of second causes.
1694. Child, Disc. Trade (ed. 4), 95. The conflux of riches to that city or Nation.
1779. Johnson, Lett. Mrs. Thrale, 16 Nov. Such a conflux of misery.
1877. Mozley, Univ. Serm., v. 107. In war there is just that conflux of splendid action upon the very edge of life, which rouses curiosity and emotion.
