[ad. L. connect-ĕre (in classical period, cōnectĕre) to tie, fasten, join together, f. con- together + nectĕre to bind, tie, fasten. Cf. mod.F. connecter (not in Cotgr., 1611). The earlier equivalent was F. connexer, Eng. CONNEX.]
1. trans. To join, fasten, or link together: said either of the personal agent or of the connecting medium or instrumentality. Const. to, with.
a. 1691. Boyle, Fluidity & Firmness, II. Wks. 1744, I. 271/1. The corpuscles, that constitute the quicksilver, will, after innumerable revolutions, be so connected to one another, that instead of a fluid body, they will appear in the form of a red powder.
1726. trans. Gregory’s Astron., I. 189. A Right Line connecting the Sun and Earth.
1732. Pope, Ess. Man, I. 272. He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all.
1839. G. Bird, Nat. Phil., 4. From E draw lines connecting this point to abcde.
1883. Knowledge, 13 July, 24/2. The free ends of the coils are all connected to the commutator.
Mod. The ancient paved way that connected the two camps can still be traced. The island is connected by telegraph with the mainland.
fig. 1537. Inst. Chr. Man, E. [The Church] inwardly shall be connected … togither in one godly consent in charitie.
1768. Sterne, Sent. Journ. (1775), I. 33. I would fasten [my affections] upon some sweet myrtle, or seek some melancholy cypress to connect myself to.
1798. Malthus, Popul. (1817), I. 170. The pastoral tribes of Asia, by living in tents and moveable huts … are still less connected with their territory.
2. To join together in sequence, order, or coherence (ideas, words, the steps of an argument, the parts of a composition).
1678. Hobbes, Dec. Phys., i. 14. They [the Hebrews] thought the Names of things sufficiently connected, when they are placed in their natural consequence.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., IV. xvii. The connexion of each intermediate idea with those that it connects.
1755. Johnson, Connect … 3. To join in a just series of thought, or regular construction of language: as, the authour connects his reasons well.
1829. Jas. Mill, Anal. Hum. Mind (1878), I. iv. § 8. 212. The Conjunctions are distinguished from the Prepositions by connecting Predications; while the Prepositions connect Words.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), IV. 134. This hint is the thread by which Plato connects the two parts of the dialogue.
3. To associate in occurrence or action. Chiefly pass., To be in necessary or natural association; to have practical relations, have to do with.
1709. Berkeley, Ess. Vision, § 58. [To] judge a faint or confused appearance to be … connected with great or little distance.
1753. Melmoth, Cicero’s Lett., XII. xi. (R.). I call him ours; for … I cannot separate myself from any thing with which you are connected.
1788. Bentham, Wks., X. 182. A very busy amateur in everything that is in any way connected with mechanics.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), I. 102. On the Advantages and the Pleasures connected with the Study of Botany.
b. To associate in idea; to view or think of as connected.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 168, ¶ 6. Who does not … from the long habit of connecting a knife with sordid offices, feel aversion rather than terror?
1840. De Quincey, Style, ii. Wks. 1890, X. 173. In the earliest states of society, all truth that has any interest or importance for man will connect itself with heaven.
1850. McCosh, Div. Govt., IV. ii. (1874), 497. The believer in Christ connects his very temporal mercies with the work and sufferings of his Saviour.
1878. Morley, Diderot, I. 33. To connect them [such irregularities] by way of effect with the new opinions in religion would be impertinent.
4. To unite (a person) with others (by ties of intimacy, common aims, or family relationship). Chiefly pass. and refl.
1750. Chesterf., Lett., III. ccxxii. 9. Connect yourself, while you are in France, entirely with the French.
1828. D’Israeli, Chas. I., II. xi. 276. Bishop Williams … was long and secretly connected with the patriotic party.
1835. Macaulay, Mackintosh, Ess. (1854), I. 335/1. They saw their sovereign … connecting himself by the strongest ties with the most faithless and merciless persecutor.
1863. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., III. 159. People connected with the Court.
b. To state or establish relationship with.
1881. J. Russell, Haigs, i. 22. The pedigree which professes to connect the De Hagas of the twelfth century with the Pictish sovereigns of the ninth.
5. intr. (for refl.) To become joined or united; to join on.
1744. H. Walpole, Lett. to Mann, 24 Dec. [They] are all of the Granville and Bath squadron except Lord Cholmondeley (who too, had connected with the former).
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1852), I. 535. One all-comprehensive plan; wherein nothing stands alone, but all the parts connect with one another.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., 195. That part which passes through, and connects with the ball.
1863. Hawthorne, Old Home, Haunts of Burns (1879), 217. Connecting with it, there is a very small room … which Burns used as a study.
b. Of a railway train, steamer, etc.: To run in connection. (U.S.)
1856. Olmsted, Slave States, 134. The train was advertised to connect here with a steamboat for Norfolk.
c. fig. To fit together or cohere (in logical sequence or agreement); to be practically related or associated. ? Obs.
1753. Stewart’s Trial, 267. From the depositions of these two witnesses, which connect exactly together, it is distinctly proved [etc.].
1755. Johnson, Connect, v.n. To cohere; to have just relation to things precedent and subsequent. Seldom used but in conversation.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. xi. (1869), I. 238. The produce of the dairy, of which the price naturally connects with that of butcher’s-meat.
