[app. a. F. conjoncture (conjuncture in Cotgr. 1611, in early F. conjointure) = It. congiuntura (Florio), Sp. conjuntura (Minsheu), prob. repr. a med. or mod.L. *conjunctūra: see CONJUNCT and -URE.]
† 1. The action of joining together; the fact or state of being joined together; a joining, conjunction, combination. Obs.
1665. Walton, Life Hooker, i. 7. This meekness, and conjuncture of knowledge with modesty.
1672. Mede’s Wks., Life, 2. What words he most stuck at, either single or in conjuncture.
1679. Hobbes, Behemoth, II. (R.). By the conjuncture of philosophy and divinity.
1736. Butler, Anal., I. iii. 83. A conjuncture of accidents.
† b. Meeting (of persons). Obs.
1644. Slingsby, Diary (1836), 105. To prevent ye conjuncture of Sir Thomas Fairfax and his father.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), I. 35. God prosper you at home, as me abroad, and send us in good time a joyful conjuncture.
† c. Marriage union. Obs.
1679–1714. Burnet, Hist. Ref. (1816), I. I. II. 191. If a horror were not struck in men at conjunctures in these degrees.
† d. Place of joining or meeting, junction. Obs.
1747. Burton, in Phil. Trans., XLIV. 542. Weighton now stands at the Conjuncture of several Roads, which here meet.
1798. Hinderwell, Hist. Scarborough, I. i. 13. It was usual with our Christian Saxon ancestors to build such houses at the conjuncture of several roads, for the relief and entertainment of poor distressed travellers.
2. spec. A meeting of circumstances or events; a particular state of affairs, esp. of a critical nature; a juncture, crisis. (The only current sense.)
a. simply.
1619. V’ct Doncaster, in Eng. & Germ. (Camden), 141. The Spanishe succors comming in so fatal a conjuncture maye … dismaye the Bohemians.
1736. Butler, Anal., I. iii. Wks. 1874, I. 64. In certain conjunctures, ignorance and folly … may have their advantages.
1759. Franklin, Ess., Wks. 1840, III. 343. Measures that might promote the public service at this critical conjuncture.
1870. Disraeli, Lothair, vii. 25. Such a conjuncture had never occurred.
b. of time, affairs, etc.
1624. Ld. Kensington, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., I. III. 173. Very unseasonably in this conjuncture of tyme.
1768. Sterne, Sent. Journ. (1778), II. 93. The Address, What is worse in the present conjuncture of affairs.
1812. Bp. Jebb, in Corr. w. Knox, II. 108. In the life of every man, there are providential conjunctures of time, place, and person, which are of infinite importance.
1853. Herschel, Pop. Lect. Sc., i. § 57 (1873), 45. Certain conjunctures of atmospheric or other circumstances.
c. An astrological or astronomical conjunction.
1605. Verstegan, Dec. Intell., iv. (1636), 100. This coniuncture to haue remained for some space after the great and generall deluge.
1668. Clarendon, Tracts (1727), 558. Two several men born in the same conjuncture.
1812. Woodhouse, Astron., xxiii. 241. There are conjunctures, when Venus eclipses part of the Sun’s disk.
3. quasi-concr. † a. A conjoined or connected assemblage of things. Also fig. Obs.
1647. Jer. Taylor, Lib. Proph., xi. 177. The Apostles were forc’d to unloose the whole conjuncture of parts and principles. Ibid. (1655), Serm. (1678), 213. His purposes untwist as easily as the rude conjuncture of uncombining Cables in the violence of a Northern Tempest.
† b. Something conjoined; an accessory. Obs.
1762. trans. Busching’s Syst. Geog., III. 673. The arms … are … supposed to be the feril of a pilgrim’s staff … to which are added a number of other conjunctures.
