Also 4–6 concent(e, 5–6 consente. [ME. consente, a. OF. consente, f. consentir to CONSENT: cf. ASSENT sb.
Owing to the frequent ME. confusion of s and c (whence our mice, pence, defence, etc.), it was often spelt concent down to 16th c., and was thus liable to confusion with musical CONCENT, when the latter word was introduced. From the approximation of sense, it is in some passages difficult to say which of the two was meant.]
1. Voluntary agreement to or acquiescence in what another proposes or desires; compliance, concurrence, permission.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 4955 (Cott.). Yee sald him þan gain mi consent. Ibid., 29136 (Cott.). Þar es steps thrin þat man mai fall wit-all in sin, egging, liging, and consent.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 349. Oo maner of consent is, whanne a man is stille & telliþ not.
c. 1440. York Myst., xliii. 215. I saie for me with full concente, Þi likyng all will I fulfille.
1574. trans. Littleton’s Tenures, 9 a. Provinge his assent and consente of such endowemente.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., I. i. 25. This man hath my consent to marrie her.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxi. 112. The Consent of a Subject to Soveraign Power.
1742. Pope, Dunc., IV. 395. The Goddess smiling seem’d to give consent.
1864. Tennyson, En. Ard., 709. His long wooing her, Her slow consent, and marriage.
1874. Green, Short Hist., vii. § 6. 409. The unanimous demand of her people wrested at last a sullen consent from the Queen.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. xiv. 143. The deliberate assent and consent of a parliament.
plural. 1547. Homilies, I. Adultery, I. (1859), 119. Our hearts pure and free from all evil thoughts, carnal desires, and fleshly consents.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, V. iii. 69. The main consents are had.
1719. W. Wood, Surv. Trade, 259. They are not deprived without their own Consents.
a. 1766. Mrs. F. Sheridan, S. Bidulph (1767), V. 57. Parents … withhold their consents to marriages.
† b. To be of consent: to be accessary. Obs.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 74. The Pope cursed the deede doers with such as were of their consent, eyther that ayded or harboured them.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., II. ii. 3. Some villaines of my Court Are of consent and sufferance in this.
c. prov. Silence gives consent. [Cf. quot. 1380 in 1.]
[1611. Cotgr. s.v. Consentir, Assez consent qui ne dit mot … (Many, who know not much more Latine, can say, Qui tacet consentire videtur.)]
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. xxvi. 138. Silence is sometimes an argument of Consent.
1672. Ray, Proverbs. Silence gives consent.
1883. Froude, Short Stud., IV. I. vii. 77. The archbishop [Becket] answered that there was a proverb in England that silence gave consent [c. 1200 in Materials Hist. Becket (Rolls), I. 68. Respondit Archiepiscopus quod nostræ gentis proverbium est quod taciturnus speciem prætendit confitentis].
1883. G. Lloyd, Ebb & Flow, II. 2. Well then, I take silence for consent.
d. Age of consent: the age fixed by law at which a person’s consent to certain acts (e.g., marriage, sexual intercourse) is valid in law.
[Cf. 1628. Coke, On Litt., 79.]
1809. Tomlins, Law Dict., s.v. Marriage, If a boy under 14 or girl under 12 years of age marries, this Marriage is only incohate and imperfect; and when either of them comes to that age, which is for this purpose termed their age of consent, they may disagree and declare the Marriage void.
1885. Times (Weekly ed.), 17 July, 12/3 (Criminal Law Amendment Bill). Further provision for the protection of women and children is urgently needed…. The present age of consent, which is thirteen, is altogether too low. Ibid. (1891), 29 May, 8/4. Effects of the Age of Consent Bill … The Raikwals, a most learned community of Brahmins … have … decided not to marry their daughters below the age of 12.
2. Agreement by a number of persons as to a course of action; concert. Obsolescent exc. as in b.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Cor. vii. 5. Nyle ȝe defraude to gidere no but perauenture of consent to a tyme.
[1526–34. Tindale, ibid. Withdrawe not youre selves one from another, excepte it be with consent for a tyme.]
1494. in Eng. Gilds, 187. Confermed, by the assente and consente and agrement off all the Bredern off the same gilde.
1529. More, Dyaloge, I. Wks. 117/1. Only made by consent and agrement of men.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 460. I see the tricke on’t: Heere was a consent, Knowing aforehand of our merriment, To dash it like a Christmas Comedie.
1650. Hobbes, Human Nature, xii. (R.). When the wills of many concur to one and the same action and effect; this concourse of their wills is called consent.
1780. Cowper, Nightingale & Glow-worm. But sing and shine by sweet consent.
b. phr. With one consent, by common consent.
1580. Baret, Alv., C. 1069. All they, with one accord, or consent [omnes vno ore], gaue him counsell to tumble hir downe headlong.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., III. iii. 176. All with one consent praise new borne gaudes.
1611. Bible, Luke xiv. 18. And they all with one consent began to make excuse.
1641. Baker, Chron., 111. It is by common Consent of all agreed [in Parliament] that the King should not go in person.
1781. Cowper, Retirement, 524. And all … agree With one consent to rush into the sea.
1874. Sidgwick, Meth. Ethics, I. viii. § 3. 87. Their reception by common consent is still an argument for their validity.
3. Agreement or unity of opinion, consensus, unanimity. Obs. or arch.
1529. More, Dyaloge, I. Wks. 148/1. I think that god with his holy spirite ledeth his church into the consent of his trouth.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lviii. § 3. To hide the general consent of Antiquity agreeing in the literal interpretation.
1628. T. Spencer, Logick, 150. I haue shewed the consent of both Authors in the place aleadged.
1785. Paley, Mor. Philos. (1818), I. 13. We are far from a perfect consent in our opinions or feelings.
1879. M. Arnold, Equality, Mixed Ess. 49. As to the duty of pursuing equality, there is no such consent among us.
pl. 1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 387. The consentes of voyces, must be weyed and measured, not numbred.
1669. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, I. I. xi. 60. I … adde the Symbols, or consents of other Learned men.
4. Agreement in feeling, sympathy; also, more generally, harmony, accord, agreement. arch.
1382. Wyclif, 2 Cor. vi. 16. But what consent to the temple of God with ydols?
1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 191. It is not ye descent of birth but ye consent of conditions that maketh Gentlemen.
1607–12. Bacon, Ess. Deformity (Arb.), 250. Certainely there is a consent betweene the body, and the minde.
1641. in Rushw., Hist. Coll. (1692), III. I. 306. Affinity and Consent with the Rules of Nature.
1733. Pope, Ess. Man, III. 296. Such is the World’s great harmony, that springs From Order, Union, full Consent of things.
1794. Paley, Evid., III. v. (1817), 330. The consent … between Saint Paul’s speeches and letters is in this respect sufficiently exact.
1870. M. Conway, Earthw. Pilgr., xxvii. 324. Showing the consent of solar systems to the motion of a finger.
† b. Agreement in faith and doctrine, ecclesiastical communion. Obs.
1635. Pagitt, Christianogr., I. ii. (1636), 66. Let them send letters of consent (that is, of communion) to the Patriarch.
1659. J. Arrowsmith, Chain Princ., 91. Consent in Religion is wont to tie the fastest knots of mutual accord.
1709. Strype, Ann. Ref., I. xxv. 286. Wherein is taught our consent with the German … and other reformed churches.
† 5. Phys. and Pathol. A relation of sympathy between one organ or part of the body and another, whereby when the one is affected the other is affected correspondingly. Obs. Cf. CONSENSUS 1.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 253. Aboue all other Consents is that simpathy betweene the womb and the brests which exceedeth euen admiration it self.
1655. Culpepper, Riverius, VI. vii. 140. He supposeth that the Larynx did not suffer principally, but by consent.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., Consent of parts, in the animal œconomy, a certain agreement, or sympathy, by means whereof, when one part is immediately affected, another, at a distance, becomes affected in like manner.
1797. M. Baillie, Morb. Anat. (1807), 114. Being explained upon the principle of a consent or sympathy existing between the absorbents of [different parts].
† 6. Feeling, opinion, or its expression. Obs.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., I. ii. 44. By my consent, wee’le euen let them alone.
1599. G. a Greene, Greene’s Wks. (1861), 254. Let me hear, townsmen, what is your consents.
† 7. A party united by common agreement, fellowship, or adherence to an opinion. Obs. rare.
1575. R. B., Appius & V., in Hazl., Dodsley, IV. 147. So shall you see the end of him and all his whole concent.
1580. Baret, Alv., C. 1070. A diuers consent in sundrie wilful opinions, a sect, a schole or maner of teaching.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, I. lvi. (1632), 175. Even those which are not of our consent, doe flatly inhibite … the use of the sacred name.
8. attrib.
1848. Wharton, Law Lex., Consent-rule, an instrument in writing, which a defendant in an action of ejectment enters into at the time he enters an appearance…. The consent-rule is signed by the defendant’s attorney.
1888. Pall Mall G., 16 July, 6/2. Counsel had an absolute right to consent to a compromise … but if a party sought to be relieved from a consent order, the application should be made promptly.
