coaction
(kəʊˈækʃən)
Also 4–6 coaccion.
[a. F. coaction (14th c.) in same sense, ad. L. coactiōnem n. of action, f. coagĕre, cōgere: see coact.]
I. 1. a. Compulsion, constraint, coercion. (Very frequent in 16–17th c.; now rare.)
| c 1400 Test. Love iii. (1560) 295/1 Coaccion, that is to sayne, constrainyng. 1528 Tindale Parable wicked Mammon Wks. I. 55 Of his own nature, without coaction or compulsion of the law. 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. iv. viii. 367 The liberty of the Will, whereby it hath power to determin it self, and is free from all force and coaction. a 1711 Ken Sion Poet. Wks. 1721 IV. 360 To sin and err were I not free, All Duty would Co-action be. 1754 Edwards Freed. Will i. §5 Constraint..otherwise called Force, Compulsion and Coaction; which is a Person's being necessitated to do a thing contrary to his Will. 1852 Bp. Forbes Nicene Creed 51 The power of choice and..absence of any extrinsic or intrinsic necessity or coaction. |
b. Control in the way of constraining.
| 1855 Ess. Intuitive Morals 95 The Strength of the true self is acquired solely by its resistance and co-action of the gravitation of the lower nature. |
† c. Application of physical force. Obs. rare.
| 1634 Brereton Trav. (1844) 15 Gives motion unto this wheel without any great strain or coaction. |
† 2. Contraction, condensation. Obs. rare.
| 1635 N. Carpenter Geog. Del. i. ii. 21 The thickning..of any body is made by addition and coaction of more parts into the same space. |
† 3. [tr. L. coactio.] Some disease of animals.
| 1748 tr. Vegetius Distempers Horses 69 Coaction (or Constraint) is the Name of a Passion in Animals from which divers kinds of Sicknesses arise. |
II. [f. co- + action] (with hyphen).
4. a. Action in concert, acting together.
| 1625 Sir J. Stradling Div. Poems 57 When Beares and Woolues..Assault your fouldes, By their vniust coaction. 1697 J. Serjeant Solid Philos. 111 The Co-action of Soul and Body. 1746 W. Horsley Fool (1748) I. 209 Which inflames his Spirits beyond a regular Co-action with his natural Understanding. 1823 J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 33 The simultaneous co-action of different bodies of soldiery. |
b. Ecology. The interaction of two or more individuals or species. Hence coˈactee, coˈactor ns.
| 1927 F. E. Clements in Carnegie Inst. Washington Year Bk. XXVI. 323 Coaction [is] the effect manifested by plants or animals upon each other directly. 1939 Clements & Shelford Bio-Ecol. iv. 104 The initiating or directing organism..the coactor and the receiving one..the coactee. 1949 W. C. Allee et al. Princ. Animal Ecol. xxii. 349/1 The coaction aspect of the population problem. |