cohesion
(kəʊˈhiːʒən)
Also 7–8 cohæsion.
[a. F. cohésion, ad. L. *cohæsiōn-em, n. of action f. cohæs- ppl. stem of cohærēre to cohere.]
1. The action or condition of cohering; cleaving or sticking together; spec. the force with which the molecules of a body or substance cleave together; cf. attraction of cohesion.
| 1678 Hobbes Nat. Philos. viii. Wks. 1845 VII. 139 The parts thereof may be contiguous, without any other cohesion but towch. 1690 Locke Hum. Und. ii. v. (1695) 54 The Extension of Body, being nothing but the Cohesion or continuity of solid separable, moveable Parts. 1765 A. Dickson Treat. Agric. iv. iv. (ed. 2) 468 Where the cohesion is weakest, it opens in rents. 1865 Geikie Scen. & Geol. Scotl. ii. 35 Water..loosens the cohesion of a steep bank. 1870 Tyndall Heat i. 10 He wishes to tear the wood asunder, to overcome its mechanical cohesion by the teeth of his saw. |
2. Bot. The superficial union of like organs. (Distinguished from adhesion.)
| 1835 Henslow Bot. (Lardner's Cabinet Cycl.) 93 In proportion as this cohesion extends from the base towards the apices of the sepals. 1848 Lindley Introd. Bot. II. 62 A cohesion of the cotyledons takes place. 1882 Vines Sachs' Bot. 546 note, It has come to be the usage in English works on descriptive botany to apply the term ‘cohesion’ to the apparent union of organs of the same kind, ‘adhesion’ to the apparent union of organs of a different kind. |
3. transf. and fig. Of non-material union.
| c 1690 Locke (J.), In their tender years, ideas that have no natural cohesion, come to be united in their heads. 1796 Burke Regic. Peace i. Wks. 1808 VIII. 161 It long held together with a degree of cohesion, firmness, and fidelity not known before or since in any political combination of that extent. 1855 H. Spencer Princ. Psychol. (1872) I. ii. ii. 180 There is considerable cohesion between the visual sensations produced by an orange and the taste or smell of the orange. 1875 Stubbs Const. Hist. I. ii. 28 The tie of nationality [was] a sufficient bond of cohesion. |
4. attrib., as in cohesion figures: the forms assumed by a drop of any liquid when placed on a solid or another liquid.