▪ I. agglutinate, ppl. a.
(əˈgl(j)uːtɪnət)
[ad. L. agglūtināt-us pa. pple. of agglūtinā-re to fasten with glue; f. ag- = ad- to + glūtinā-re to glue; f. glūten, -in- glue.]
1. United as with glue; glued or cemented together.
| 1541 R. Copland Galyen's Terap. 2 D j, Is it possyble..that an vlcere caued may growe togyther and be agglutynate before that the cauyte be replete with flesshe? 1875 Griffith & Henfrey Micros. Dict. s.v. Calymperaceæ, A delicate membrane agglutinate to the teeth. |
2. Philol. Consisting of simple or root words combined into compounds, without any important change of form or loss of original meaning, as in arrow-head-maker, castle-come-down, John-go-to-bed-at-noon.
| 1850 Latham Var. Man 14 Languages, with an agglutinate, rarely an amalgamate inflexion. 1871 Earle Philol. Eng. Tong. §255 These agglutinate forms, including such as ichave, hastow, wiltu,..are found in great numbers. |
▪ II. agglutinate, v.
(əˈgl(j)uːtɪneɪt)
[f. prec., or on analogy of vbs. so formed.]
1. To unite or fasten as with glue; to glue, to cement.
| 1586 Bright Melancholy xiii. 69 Sundrye actions being performed, as to attract..to agglutinate, etc. 1599 A. M. tr. Gabelhouer's Bk. Physic 22/1 Agglutinate the same, so close that noe ayre can passe through. 1797 Pearson in Phil. Trans. LXXXVIII. 33, I could just agglutinate the powder into one mass. 1863 Lyell Antiq. Man App. 534 Conglomerates, in which shells or casts of them are agglutinated together with sand and pebbles. |
2. a. Phys. To cause to adhere. In an obs. sense, To add as new material repairing waste of tissue.
| 1620 Venner Via Recta v. 83 Egges..speedily and purely nourish..because of an aptnesse that they have in their substance to be assimilated, and agglutinated to the parts of the body. 1712 tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 199 Moreover Sarcocol agglutinates Flesh. 1743 tr. Heister's Surg. 17 To agglutinate and heal wounds. 1836 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. I. 513/2 [Lymph] by agglutinating together the fibres and layers causes the hardness which is so perceptible on pressing the diseased part. |
b. Bacteriology. To cause agglutination or coalescence of (bacteria or red blood-corpuscles). Also absol. or intr., to undergo agglutination. Hence aˈgglutinating ppl. a.; aˈgglutinable, aˈgglutinative adjs.; agglutinaˈbility, the quality or property of being agglutinable; agglutiˈnation; aˈgglutinator; aˈgglutinin (also -inine), an agent that causes agglutination; aˈgglutinogen, a substance present in bacteria or blood cells, which stimulates the formation of agglutinins; hence aˈgglutinogenous a.; aˈgglutinoid, an agglutinin that has lost its agglutinophoric group, but retains the haptophoric group for the cell; aˈgglutinophore, a molecular complex of the agglutinins to which their agglutinating property is due; hence agglutinoˈphoric a.
| 1896 Lancet 19 Sept. 806/2 The ‘agglutinines’ found in the serum of immunised animals. Ibid., The use of the agglutinative action of human serum for the diagnosis of enteric fever. 1898 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 3 Sept. 589/1 Agglutinating or sedimentary properties of serums..their power of causing clumping (agglutination). Ibid. 592/2 A. S. F. Grünbaum..pointed out that even inanimate substances..might be agglutinated by various serums. 1900 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. LXXVIII. ii. 560 No satisfactory theory [to explain agglutination]..has yet been offered, although Bordet's, that an agglutinating agent (agglutinine) acting upon an agglutinable substance..is regarded as most rational. 1901 Jrnl. Exper. Med. V. 361 Any given race [of bacilli] does not necessarily produce the same quantities of the different constituents at different times, and hence the variations of agglutinability, virulence, etc. 1902 Ibid. 17 Mar. 289 Ricin, a strong agglutinator. 1903 Jrnl. R. Microsc. Soc. Feb. 78 The agglutinative and agglutinogenous functions are subject to the greatest variations. 1903 Lancet 4 Apr. 946/1 The existence of the agglutinins was one of the earliest results of modern investigations into immunity. Ibid. 946/2 The bacilli may lose their agglutinability,..viz., their agglutinable substance loses its functional atom-group. Ibid., A higher dilution would sometimes agglutinate when a lower one would not. Ibid., Agglutinins may become converted into agglutinoids. 1904 Jrnl. Med. Research Oct. 314 A. Joos..describes two other complementary agglutinable substances of the bacilli themselves, which he calls α and β agglutinogens. 1915 Lancet 13 Nov. 1086/2 The agglutination test..gave a positive result in practically every case of enteric fever. 1947 Ibid. 1 Feb. 193/1 The term ‘universal donor’ was introduced when it was thought there were only two corpuscular agglutinogens. 1947 Sci. News IV. 49 Blood grouping has become more and more complex with the discovery of new specific agglutinable (clump-forming) substances. 1948 Ibid. VI. 98 When blood of a wrong (incompatible) group is given in a blood transfusion, the unsuitable red cells are clotted together and broken by agglutinins in the patient's circulation. 1950 Ibid. XV. 106 In no case did the serum agglutinate the red cells which came from the same blood sample. |
3. To combine simple words so as to express compound ideas; to compound.
| 1830 Coleridge Table Talk (1851) 67 The Ober-Deutsch was fuller and fonder of agglutinating words together. |
4. trans. and intr. To turn into glue.
| 1869 in Eng. Mech. 30 July 412/1 Alcohol..agglutinates copal. Ibid., Shellac, elemi, and mastic agglutinate [in boiling water]. |