Also 5 -tur, 7 Sc. -tor, 8 joncture. [ad. L. junctūra joining, joint, f. junct-, ppl. stem of jungĕre to join: see -URE.]
1. The action of joining together; the condition of being joined together; joining, junction.
1589. Warner, Alb. Eng., V. xxvii. Signes workings, planets iunctures, and The eleuated poule.
1643. Nethersole, Parables on Times, 14. The juncture and contignation those parts had with the whole frame.
a. 1657. Sir W. Mure, Historie, Wks. II. 239. The match, and junctor of both families in one.
1703. Rowe, Fair Penit., I. i. 218. Perhaps she means To treat in Juncture with her new Ally.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), I. 282. Making arbitrary junctures for which she has given no foundation.
1821. Foster, in Life & Corr. (1846), II. 41. The juncture with what precedes and follows.
1893. F. Adams, New Egypt, 8. This large-minded Arabian Khalif, who anticipated the Suez Canal by his juncture of the Nile and the Red Sea.
2. The place at which, or structure by which, two things are joined; a joint, jointing, junction.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Kings vi. 18. Hauynge his turnours, and his iuncturis forgid, and grauyngis ouerbeynge.
1519. Horman, Vulg., 339. Thou canst nat spy the iuncture though thou loke nie.
1609. Bible (Douay), Hab. ii. 11. The timber, that is betwen the junctures of the buildings.
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 39. The place where the Stem and the Root join, is called the Juncture.
1763. Hist. Eur., in Ann. Reg., 27/1. It stands at the juncture of that great river with another.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls., I. 153. The junctures of the marble slabs being so close.
† b. A joint of the body; = JOINT sb. 1. Obs.
c. 1475. Pict. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 749/25. Hic [sic] junctura, junctur.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, IV. xii. 103. The iuncturis and lethis of hir cors.
1609. Bible (Douay), Ezek. xxxvii. 7. And bones came to bones, everie one to his iuncture.
1657. Tomlinson, Renou’s Disp., 584. Cold diseases of the … nerves and junctures.
1717. J. Keill, Anim. Oecon., Pref. (1738), 10. The different Junctures of the Bones.
3. Something that connects two things; a connecting link; a means of connection or union. rare.
a. 1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., II. vii. 203. Since the Flood there have been some such Junctures or Land-passages between the Northern parts of Asia or Europe, and some Northern parts of the Continent of America.
1841. Myers, Cath. Th., IV. § 32. 332. The Epistle to the Hebrews … seems to stand as the uniting and harmonising juncture of the Pauline and the Petrine preaching.
1880. J. Martineau, Hours Th., II. 23. The ascending juncture that reaches from nothingness to God.
4. A convergence or concurrence of events or circumstances; a particular or critical posture of affairs or point of time; a crisis, conjuncture.
1656. Ben Israel, Vind. Judæorum, in Phenix (1708), II. 423. But at that juncture of time my coming was not presently perform’d.
1658. Phillips, s.v. Juncture of time, the very nick or moment of time.
1662. Pepys, Diary, 30 June. This I take to be as bad a juncture as ever I observed. The King and his new Queene minding their pleasures at Hampton Court. All people discontented.
1704. Addison, Italy (1733), 58. As different Junctures and Emergencies arise.
1838. Thirlwall, Greece, xv. II. 266. The course of action required by new situations, and sudden junctures.
1853. Bright, Sp., India (1876), 11. In the present critical juncture of things.
1874. Green, Short Hist., v. § 4. 241. The most terrible plague which the world ever witnessed advanced at this juncture from the East.
† 5. Joint-tenancy; = JOINTURE 3. Obs.
1533–4. [see JOINTURE 3].
