▪ I. † aˈppose, v.1 Obs.
Forms: 4–5 opose, apose, 5–7 appose.
[orig. a variant spelling of oppose, ME. oposen and aposen, = OFr. oposer and aposer (both languages showing substitution of the more common atonic ă- for atonic ŏ-: even med.L. confounded appositum and oppositum), used in the common scholastic sense of L. oppōnĕre ‘to argue against, bring forward objections or difficulties to be answered’ (oppōnere et respondēre). In senses more obviously connected with the primary meaning of oppōnĕre and opposition, the form oppose was at length established; but in those in which this connexion was not apparent, and which might even be plausibly explained from appōnĕre, as if ‘to put it to one,’ appose early prevailed. Also aphetized in 15th c. to pose, the mod. repr. For the artificial affiliation of -pose to L. pōnĕre, positum, see next.]
1. To confront with objections or hard questions; to examine, interrogate, question.
| c 1315 Shoreham 145 Ȝef the faly throf to be aposed, Sey God nys nauȝt in ther wordle a-closed. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls Ser.) IV. 291 Þe childe Jesus..sittynge and apposynge þe doctours. a 1400 Cov. Myst. (1841) 137 The Busschop xal your lyff appose. 1440 Promp. Parv., Examyn, or apposyn (posyn, posen), Examino. 1553 Short Catech. Edw. VI, 495 Thus beginneth the Master to appose his Scholar..I thought it best to oppose thee by certain questions. 1558 Bp. Watson 7 Sacram. xxi. 130 The mynister should not be compelled to appose and examine the penitent. 1581 Campion in Confer. iii. (1584) O ij, You come to appose mee, as if I were a scholer in the Grammar schoole. 1615 T. Adams Two Sonnes 65 Question against question: the Jewes appose Jesus, Jesus apposeth the Jewes. |
2. absol. and intr.
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. A. 901 Þaȝ I appose, I schulde not tempte þe wyt so wlonc. 1491 Caxton Vitas Patr. (W. de W.) i. xciii. 127 b/1, I woll apose and dyspute wyth hym of some necessary thynges. 1551 T. Wilson Logic 61 The one aunswering and denying, and the other still apposing. 1581 Campion in Confer. iii. (1584) U iij b, I would I might appose. |
3. spec. To examine as to accounts, to audit. (Cf. apposer 2.)
| 1601 Tate Househ. Ord. Ed. II, §44 (1876) 26, A serjant naper..shal aunswere for it as often as he shal be apposed. 1738 Hist. Crt. Exchequer v. 96 The Sheriff was apposed anciently in open Court and now by the Cursitor Baron. |
4. = oppose, q.v.
▪ II. appose, v.2
(əˈpəʊz, emphatic ˌæˈpəʊz)
[formed to represent L. appōnĕre, on the analogy of compose, expose, suppose, and the other assumed representatives of compounds of pōnĕre, formed on OFr. poser:—L. pausāre, after this vb. came, through form-assoc. with positio, positum, to be treated as the representative of L. pōnĕre (see pause, pose). In Fr. apposer is found as early as 13th c.]
1. To put or apply one thing to another, as a seal to a document; to put (food) before.
| 1593 J. Carey Let. in Tytler Hist. Scot. (1864) IV. 206 The king doth too much appose himself to the Papist faction. 1596 Chapman Iliad ix. 95 Atrides..food sufficient Appos'd before them, and the peers appos'd their hands to it. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World ii. 228 Fire to heate whatsoever is apposed. 1662 Evelyn Chalcog. (1769) 43 One of the ancientest gravings..to which any mark is apposed. 1862 F. Hall Hind. Philos. Syst. 214 As the iron moves, when the precious stone..is apposed to it. 1868 Browning Ring & Bk. iv. 1495 The last seal publicly apposed to shame. |
2. To place in apposition or juxtaposition; to range side by side.
| c 1800 K. White Rem. (1837) 391 Original conceptions luminously displayed and judiciously apposed. 1870 Rolleston Anim. Life Introd. 20 The boundaries of species..may be closely apposed..along considerable lengths. |