▪ I. alliance, n.
(əˈlaɪəns)
Forms: 3–7 aliˈance, 3–6 alyˈance, 4–5 alyˈaunse, allyˈaunce, 4–6 ali-, aly-, alliˈaunce, 5 alyans, alyˈawns, 6–8 allyance, 4– aˈlliance. By-form 3 enlyance.
[a. OFr. aliance, 14th c. alliance: see ally and -ance; repr. L. alligantia (found in med.L.) n. of state, f. alligant-em pr. pple. of alligāre. Accented alliˈance in 16th c.]
The state of union or combination; the action of uniting or combining.
1. Union by marriage, affinity; union through marriage or common parentage, relationship, kinship, consanguinity.
| 1297 R. Glouc. 12 He bygan to loue Brut so muche..Þat he wyllede..to hym enlyance. Ibid. 295 To spouse hyre..Þat he myȝte, þoru alyance, eny help vndergo. c 1365 Chaucer A.B.C. 60 He vouchedsafe..Become a man as for our alliaunce [v.r. allyaunce, aliaunce, aliance]. 1393 Gower Conf. III. 280 Which of sibred in aliaunce For ever kepten thilke usaunce. 1469 J. Paston Lett. 612 II. 357 Consyderyng the alyans betwyx yow. 1481 Caxton Myrr. ii. viii. 85 Mariages and Alyaunces that they doo and make wyth the sarasyns. 1548 Coverdale Erasm. Paraphr. Hebr. ii. 17 Ioyned vnto hym with so streighte a bonde of alyaunce or consanguinitie. a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. I. Pref. 18 The Allyance was undeniable; there were Children born of it. 1729 Burkitt On N.T., Mark iii. 3 Alliance by faith is more valued by our Saviour, than alliance by blood. 1877 W. Lytteil Landm. iv. viii. 225 The descendants of Scottish and Celtic alliances may have acquired the Gaelic tongue. |
2. a. Combination for a common object, confederation, union offensive and defensive; especially between sovereign states.
| 1366 Mandeville xviii. 195 To breke the Alliance and the Acord. c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. (1868) 141 Þer nis none alyaunce bytwixe good[e] folke and shrewes. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. vii. viii. 170 In fermly festnyd alyawns To þe Kyng. 1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 106 Him that hath made any aliaunce or promesse with his ennemyes. 1519 Sir T. Boleyn in Ellis Orig. Lett. i. 53 I. 148 The unfeyned amytie and aliance that is established betwixt you. 1682 Lond. Gaz. mdcclxvii/1 An Offensive and Defensive Alliance is concluded between the French King and the Duke of Savoy. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. II. xlv. 707 The peace and alliance of the two empires were faithfully maintained. 1815 Wellington in Gurwood Desp. XII. 282 A treaty of alliance which I have signed with the Ministers of the Emperors of Austria and Russia. 1878 Seeley Stein III. 430 That Alliance of the European Sovereigns which is somewhat inaccurately spoken of as the Holy Alliance. |
b. Alliance Party, the name given to any of various political parties, esp. one formed of Roman Catholic and Protestant moderates in Northern Ireland in 1970; freq. with ellipsis of Party. Also (as Alliance), the name applied to the political collaboration of the Liberal and Social Democratic Parties in Britain from 1981.
| 1970 Economist 25 Apr. 17/2 This revolt of the moderates was salutary. Their showing encouraged them to announce the formation of the new Alliance party, for Protestants and Roman Catholics alike, on Tuesday. 1975 Times 22 Apr. 2/8 The leaders of the three power-sharing parties, Alliance, SDLP and UPNI. 1977 Belfast Tel. 14 Feb. 11/6 Alliance councillor Mrs. Muriel Pritchard has appealed to candidates in the May local government elections not to stick posters on public property. 1977 Financial Times 6 Apr. 7/2 It was the 20,000 Fijian voters who deserted their traditional Alliance Party to vote for other Nationalist candidates. 1981 Times 1 Oct. 5/8 An amendment..stating that, as the Social Democratic Alliance had decided to support an organization opposing Labour MPs, the Alliance was now ineligible for affiliation to the party. 1983 Whitaker's Almanack 1984 687 Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly...Alliance Party...Democratic Unionist Party [etc.]. 1985 Church Times 14 June 12/5 It is..because these Christian values are apparently being cast off by the present leadership of the Conservative Party..that many Christians are turning to the Alliance. |
3. Community or relationship in nature or qualities; affinity; inclusion in the same class.
| 1677 R. Gilpin Dæmon. Sac. (1867) 28 This word is ranked with others, as being of the same alliance. 1754 Sherlock Disc. (1759) I. iv. 153 Corrupt Principles..have no Alliance with Reason. 1833 I. Taylor Fanat. x. 451 The ordinary alliance of the moral sentiments with the imagination. 1860 Mansel Prolegom. Log. (ed. 2) Pref. 6 The alliance established of old between Logic and Metaphysics. |
† 4. collect. People united by kinship or friendship; kindred, friends, allies. Obs. [Perh. confused with Alliants, OFr. alians; cf. accidence.]
| 1366 Mandeville xviii. 195 Accorded be here Frendes or be sum of here Alliance. 1393 Gower Conf. I. 199 Thilke alliaunce, By whom the treson was compassed. c 1400 Destr. Troy xxviii. 11390 Antenor also was abill of fryndes, Large of aliaunce. 1548 Udall etc. Erasm. Paraphr. Mark vi. 4 His alyance, kinnesmen, and famyliares. 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. iv. i. 43 Therefore let our Alliance be combin'd. 1655 Gouge Comm. Hebr. xi. 15 iii. 58 This Country..where their kindred, alliance, and other friends were. |
† 5. individual, A kinsman, relation, or ally. Obs.
| 1536–7 in Reg. Abp. Lee, York MS., To Thomas Hugaite, my allyaunce, my best doublet. 1586 J. Ferne Blaz. Gentrie Ded., A worshipful friend and allyance of mine. 1654 Ussher Annals vii. (1658) 801 He requested that..he would give him leave to see again his alliances. |
6. Bot. A name given by Lindley to groups of Natural Orders of plants, considered to be allied to each other in general structure; thus the Glumal Alliance of Endogens contains the Grasses, Cyperaceæ, and three other allied orders.
| 1836 Lindley Nat. Syst. (ed. 2) xiv, Classes, sub-classes, groups, alliances, and orders. 1838 ― in Penny Cycl. X. 126 The terminations of the names express their value; the groups end in -osæ; the alliances in -ales; the orders in -aceæ; the suborders in -eæ. 1848 ― Veg. Kingd. 8 The near approach of the two realms being through the Algal alliance. 1866 J. Balfour in Treas. Bot. 267 A natural order of dicotyledons, characterizing Lindley's chenopodal alliance. |
¶ By confusion, for allegiance.
| a 1581 E. Campion Hist. Irel. ii. i. 58 The subjects whom they had schooled, to breake allyance towards the King of Leinster. 1714 Burnet Hist. Ref., The bishops did all renew their alliance to the king. |
Sense 2 b in Dict. becomes 2 d. Add: [2.] b. Used collectively of the parties to an alliance. Occas. const. as pl.
| 1708 J. Addison Present State War 20 The Grand Alliance have innumerable Sources of Recruits..in Britain and Ireland. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. ii. 207 Apprehensions..which, in our age, induced the Holy Alliance to interfere in the internal government of Naples. 1883 Manchester Guardian 17 Oct. 5/2 The step which the United Kingdom Alliance wants Parliament to take is on their own showing a momentous one. 1965 A. J. P. Taylor Eng. Hist. 1914–45 xi. 382 The Labour party remained what it had been before—an alliance of men with widely differing views, not a disciplined army. 1987 Methodist Recorder 29 Oct. 1/3 Horoscopes, Hallowe'en celebrations and ouija boards are doorways to evil and destruction, says a report just published by the Evangelical Alliance. |
c. Ecol. [First used in this sense in Fr. by Braun-Blanquet & Pavillard in Vocabulaire de Sociol. Végétale (ed. 2, 1925) 20, app. tr. Ger. Verband.] In phytosociology, a grouping of closely related associations.
| 1930 F. R. Bharucha tr. Braun-Blanquet & Pavillard's Vocab. Plant Sociol. 21 The associations (and fragments of associations) which show floristic and sociological affinities between themselves, form an ‘Alliance’ or a group of associations. 1961 Hanson & Churchill Plant Community vi. 179 These attributes—kinds of species, abundance, frequency, dominance, and fidelity—have been used to make a hierarchical system of classification, including the association with its subdivisions and variants to alliance, order, and class. 1974 Mueller-Dombois & Ellenberg Aims & Methods Vegetation Ecol. ix. 210 As examples of alliances may be named, among others, the Arrhenatherum meadows (Arrhenatherion), the Phragmites water grass communities (Phragmition) and the moist alder forest communities (Alnion glutinosae) and the therophytic Salicornia marshland communities (Salicornion europaeae). |
▪ II. alliance, v. rare.
(əˈlaɪəns)
[f. prec. n. Cf. OFr. aliancier, and Eng. affiance.]
1. trans. To join in alliance, to ally.
| a 1688 Cudworth Serm. 62 (L.) It is allianced to none but wretched, forlorn, and apostate spirits. |
2. intr. To form alliances, ally oneself.
| 1782 T. Paine To Abbé Raynel (1791) 50 Courts..are relatively republics with each other. It is the first and true principle of alliancing. |