[f. CO- 2 and 3 b + EQUAL. Cf. L. coæquālis of equal age, companion in age, and F. coégal.]
A. adj.
1. Equal with († to, unto) one another or others; of the same rank, power, importance, value, etc. (Usually of persons or their attributes.)
c. 1460. J. Russell, Bk. Nurture, 1012, in Babees Bk., 186. Bishoppe Marques & erle coequalle.
1549. Bk. Com. Prayer, Athan. Creed. The hole thre persons: be coeternal together, and coequall.
1557. North, trans. Gueuara’s Diall, 180 a/2. We are not coequal vnto them in vertue.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., V. i. 33. If once he come to be a Cardinall, Hee’l make his cap coequall with the Crowne.
1699. Pomfret, On the General Conflagration, xvii. Poems 1766, 131 (R.). Ineffable, Co-equal Three.
1875. Lowell, Poet. Wks. (1879), 458. Here were men (co-equal with their fate) Who did great things.
1882. Farrar, Early Chr., I. 380. The co-eternal and co-equal Son.
† 2. Of the same age, coeval. Obs.
1607. Schol. Disc. agst. Antichr., I. ii. 111. The highest mentioner of it is Vincentius Tibaritanus, co-equall with Cyprian.
3. Of equivalent extent, coextensive with.
1853. G. Johnston, Nat. Hist. E. Bord., I. 2. The district is almost coequal with the ancient bishopric of Lindisfarne.
1876. Freeman, Norm. Conq., I. App. 544. These elements are not coequal with the original substance of the nation.
B. sb.
1. One who is the equal of another.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 680. God calleth the shepheard that is smitten, his fellow or coequall.
1657. W. S., Schism Dispach’t, 162. A denial of Appeals to Coequals in Authority.
a. 1864. Landor, Wks. (1868), II. 56/2. Conquerors of Time, heirs and coequals of Eternity.
† 2. One of the same age, a coeval. Obs.
1631. Gouge, God’s Arrows, V. § 17. 429. Those warlike sports & pastimes which were practiced by Cyrus when he was a youth, and by his coequals, and play-fellowes.
