adherence
(ædˈhɪərəns)
Also 7 adherance.
[a. Fr. adhérence, ad. L. adhærentia: see adherency.]
1. The action of sticking or holding fast (to anything, or together).
| 1612 T. Taylor Titus iii. 7 (1619) 670 A thing is ours two waies, 1. by infusion, inherence, or adherence; or 2. by account or reckoning. 1794 Sullivan View of Nat. I. 435 Siliceous earths are characterized by..a total want of flexibility, and adherence to each other, when minutely divided. 1875 Swinburne Ess. & Stud. 338 Another child clings to his leg..The helpless adherence of the slighted older child. |
2. Attachment (to a person or party); adhesion.
| 1634–46 J. Row (father) Hist. Kirk Scotl. (1842) 44 The causses of adherence and divorcements ought also to appertaine to them [ministers]. 1660 R. Coke Justice Vind. Ep. Ded. 8 Your constant adherence to the Church. 1754 Sherlock Disc. I. i. (1759) 2 The ground of their Constancy and Adherence to Christ. 1852 Conybeare & Howson St. Paul (1862) I. xi. 374 His present host and hostess had now given their formal adherence to St. Paul. |
3. Persistence in a practice or tenet; steady observance or maintenance. Const. to.
| 1638 Chillingworth Relig. Prot. i. ii. §154. 112 God's Spirit..may work a certainty of adherence beyond a certainty of evidence. 1769 Burke State Nat. Wks. II. 144 What does he mean by talking of an adherence to the old navigation laws? 1869 J. Martineau Ess. II. 424, I profess adherence to the English psychological method. 1879 Gladstone Gleanings II. v. 219 An uncompromising adherence to what was right. |
4. Bot. = adhesion 4; adnation.
| 1857 Henfrey Bot. 94 Adherence of sepals and petals. |
† 5. A particular instance of adhering; adherent matter or circumstance. Cf. adherency 2. Obs.
| 1531 Elyot Governour (1580) 166 Unto this noble vertue [fortitude] be attendant, or as it were continuall adherences, diuers uertues. 1650 Jer. Taylor Holy Living (1727) 94 To discern his own infirmities and make discovery of his bad adherences. 1667 in Phil. Trans. II. 426 Every one of these small adherances is turned into a little Vermicle. |