[app. a. F. consistence (16th c. Paré), now consistance = Pr. and Sp. consistencia, It. consistenza (in Florio); prob. going back to a med.L. *consistentia; f. consistent- pr. pple. of consistĕre: see CONSIST and -ENCE.]
† 1. Standing or remaining still, quiescence; state of rest. Obs.
1598. Florio, Consistenza, a standing fast or a consistence, a setling.
1611. Cotgr., Consistence, a consistence, or being; a residence, or setling.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 290. Water … being divided, maketh many circles, till it restore it self to the Natural consistence.
1624. Bp. Hall, Serm., Wks. V. 199. I find a change of Motion, of Face, of Quality. Motion: whether by consistence, or retrogradation; Sun, stand thou still in Gibeon … The shadow went back ten degrees in the dial of Ahaz.
† b. spec. The ‘standing still’ of a living being, when it has attained its full growth, and before it begins to decay. Obs. Cf. CONSISTENT A. 2 b.
a. 1613. Overbury, Observ. Provinces, Wks. (1856), 227. If they were at there consistence.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., We distinguish three states or stages of a tree; its growth, consistence, and return.
[1882. Syd. Soc. Lex., Consistentia, an old term … applied to the arrival of a living body at its fulness and perfection.]
† 2. Continuance, endurance; continuing state.
1606. G. W[oodcocke], trans. Hist. Ivstine, 42 b. That [Mytralis] was Olimpias name, during the consistance of her infancy.
† 3. A settled condition of affairs. Obs.
1661. Evelyn, Diary (1827), IV. 109. I hope I have brought my affaires almost to a Consistence.
1702. C. Mather, Magn. Chr., I. App. (1852), 96. Boston was no sooner come to some consistence, but the people found themselves plunged into a sad non-plus, etc.
4. Material coherence and permanence of form; solidity or firmness sufficient to retain its form.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 328. Putrefaction; which ever dissolveth the Consistence of the Body.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 50. Ice is only water congealed … whereby it acquireth … a consistence or determination of its diffluency. Ibid. (1658), Hydriot., iii. 18. After what shape the muscles … might hang in their full consistences.
1764. Reid, Inquiry, II. iii. The nerve itself has a very small degree of consistence.
1807. T. Thomson, Chem. (ed. 3), II. 542. It forms cubic crystals without consistence, and resembling a jelly.
fig. 1647. Ward, Simp. Cobler, 48. Boyled up to a full consistence of contumacy and impenitency.
a. 1734. North, Lives (1826), II. 372. Often at night, when … till some kind refreshment brought him to consistence, he was scarce alive.
1884. Manch. Exam., 11 Oct., 4/7. Reports … begin to acquire strength and consistence.
† b. concr. Matter dense enough to cohere. Obs. or poet.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 941. Neither Sea, Nor good dry Land: nigh founder’d on he fares Treading the crude consistence, half on foot, Half flying.
1747. Gould, Eng. Ants, 45. A liquid tenacious Humour, in the midst of which is a small Purple or black Consistence, that contains or gives Life to the future Ant.
1774. J. Bryant, Mythol., I. p. xvii. Wearied with roaming over the crude consistence.
5. The degree of firmness with which the particles of a substance cohere; degree of density. (Usually of more or less viscous liquids.)
1626. Bacon, Sylva (1631), § 839–40. The consistences of Bodies are very diuers.
1636. Blunt, Voy. Levant (ed. 2), 105. Other Flowers, Fruits and Plumbes … dried together, into a consistence reasonable hard.
1656. Ridgley, Pract. Physick, 147. Boyl that to the consistence of an Electuary.
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., 120. Rosins, whose consistence is more Solid.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, 261. A due Consistence of the Blood is very necessary for Health.
1842. Grove, Corr. Phys. Forces, 83. When cold results, it is from a change of consistence, as from the solid to the liquid state.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 192. Red-hot streams which generally present a consistence something like that of treacle.
fig. 1642. Jer. Taylor, Episc. (1647), 252. The reduction of episcopacy to a primitive consistence.
1741. H. Walpole, Lett. H. Mann (1834), I. i. 2. Besides you know the consistence of my Italian.
1805. Foster, Ess., I. iii. 36. Very few minds are of a consistence so firmly faithful as to retain, in living efficacy, impressions of [such] a kind.
† 6. Coherence in one body, union, combination.
1649. Selden, Laws Eng., II. xiii. (1739), 69. [They] declared themselves … to be the Three Estates … maintaining thereby their subsistency by the consistence of the Members together.
1702. Eng. Theophrast., 176. To unite us in a consistence both of friendship and civil convenience.
† b. quasi-concr. A union or combination of cohering elements. Obs.
1642. Milton, Reform., I. (1851), 14. Take the Church of God as meaning the whole consistence of Orders and Members.
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., I. iv. 110. A consistence of many Unities.
† 7. Coexistence as compatible facts. Obs.
1659. Vulg. Errors Censured, 66. They cannot apprehend the consistence of a Trinity of Persons with an identity of Essence.
8. = CONSISTENCY 4, 5.
1670. G. H., Hist. Cardinals, I. II. 35. To take away this Confusion … and bring things to a consistence.
1694. R. L’Estrange, Fables, ccccvii. (ed. 6), 439. To Temper and Accomodate Freedom to a Consistence with Good Manners.
1754. Edwards, Freed. Will, II. ix. 77. Whether this be in a just Consistence with themselves … I desire may be impartially considered.
1850. Kingsley, Alt. Locke, xxx. (1879), 323. They … have contrived, with what logical consistence I know not, to reconcile orthodox Christianity with unflinching democratic opinions.
1879. B. Taylor, Germ. Lit., 249. His works … exhibit greater finish and consistence.
