Definition of "consistence"

consistence

/kənˈsɪst(ə)ns/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural consistences
1. (archaic) The physical quality which is given by the degree of firmness, solidity, density, and viscosity; consistency.
  Quotations
  If they [expressed juices] be boiled into the Consistence of a Syrup.
  1731, John Arbuthnot, An Essay Concerning the Nature of Aliments, and the Choice of Them, According to the Different Constitutions of Human Bodies. […], 1st Irish edition, Dublin: […] S. Powell, for George Risk, […], George Ewing, […], and William Smith, […]
  All these things, and many others too numerous to mention, were well mixed together in the famous pot and boiled for four hours, until the consistence of a mess, or poss, was obtained, […]
  1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, Olympia Press
2. The staying together, or remaining in close relation, of non-physical things.
3. (obsolete) Standing still; quiescence; state of rest.
4. (obsolete) The condition of standing or adhering together, or being fixed in union, as the parts of a body; existence; firmness; coherence; solidity.
  Quotations
  Water, being divided, maketh many circles, till it restore itself to the natural consistence.
  1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […]
  VVe are as vvater, vveak, and of no conſiſtence, alvvayes deſcending, abiding in no certain place, unleſeſ vvhere vvee are detained vvith violence: […]
  1650 October (published 1651), Jer, published 1654, page 358
  When it was brought to the school it discharged from its right nostril, a whitish, viscid, clotty matter, which, although of little consistence, strongly adhered to the sides of the nostril.
  1830, The Veterinarian
5. Logical consistency; lack of self-contradiction.
6. (obsolete) That which stands together as a united whole; a combination.
  Quotations
  The church of God, as meaning whole consistence of orders and members.
  1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavvses that hitherto have Hindred it; republished as Will Taliaferro Hale, editor, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (Yale Studies in English; LIV), New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916

Definition of "consistence"

consistence

noun

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations