Agreement

Also 5–6 ag(g)rement. [a. OFr. agreement, agrément, n. of action, f. agréer: see AGREE and -MENT.] The action or fact of agreeing.

  † 1.  The action of pleasing or contenting; satisfaction. Obs.

1494.  Fabyan, VI. ccxii. 227. After he had taryed here a certayne of tyme, to his agrement and pleasure.

  † 2.  The action of consenting; consent. Obs.

1479.  Rokewoode, in Bury Wills (1850), 52. As welle by my wylle as by the aggrement of the seid Alice and Robert.

1483.  Caxton, Gold. Leg., 85/1. He receyuyd with hys agrement the gybet of the crosse.

  † 3.  A setting at one; atonement (both in its earlier sense of reconciliation, and its later sense of propitiation, satisfaction). Obs.

1526.  Tindale, 1 John iv. 10. Not that we loued God, but that he loued vs, and sent his sonne to make agrement for oure sinnes.

1535.  Coverdale, Ps. xlviii. 7. No man may delyuer his brother, ner make agrement for him vnto God. Ibid., Hebr. ii. 17. A faithfull hye prest in things concernynge God to make agrement for the synnes of y^e people.

1557.  N. T. (Genev.), 1 John iv. 10. And sent his sonne to make agrement for our sinnes [Rhem. and 1611 propitiation].

  4.  A coming into accord; an arrangement between two or more persons as to a course of action; a mutual understanding; a covenant, or treaty.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, XIX. 7827. Þe grekys by agrement of þe grete all, Sent to þe Cite soueran men two.

1523.  Ld. Berners, Froissart, I. cxv. 136. Were not of the agrement with the kyng.

1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., I. iii. 103. Three times did they drink Vpon agreement, of swift Severnes flood.

1611.  Bible, Dan. xi. 6. The Kings daughter of the South shall come to the King of the North to make an agreement.

1725.  De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 296. We came to a good agreement with him for his reward.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. § 10. 67. We accordingly entered into an agreement with our guide.

  5.  Law. A contract duly executed and legally binding on the parties making it.

1536.  in Thynne’s Animadv. (1865), App. 28. In wittyness herof the saide John Wilkinson, to this agreament hath putte his merke.

1751.  Chambers, Cycl., s.v., An Agreement executory is when both parties at one time are agreed, that such a thing shall be done in time to come.

1881.  F. Pollock, Princ. Contract (ed. 3), 1. An agreement is, ‘An act in the law whereby two or more persons declare their consent as to any act or thing to be done or forborne by some or one of those persons for the use of the others or other of them.’

  6.  Accordance in sentiment, opinion, action or purpose; harmony, concord; absence of dissension.

1528.  More, Heresyes, I. Wks. 1557, 170/1. The consent and comen agrement of the olde holy fathers.

1548.  Ld. Somerset, Epist. to Scots, 241. You loued better dissencion then vnitie, discorde then agremente.

1652.  Burroughes, Exp. Hosea, vi. 105. Agreement in errour is farre worse than division for the sake of truth.

1654.  Goddard, in Burton’s Diary (1828), I. 155. He hath espoused Charles Stuart, with whom he is fully at agreement.

1692.  [Wagstaffe], Vind. Carol., i. 24. It is not the Crowd, but agreement makes the Company.

1771.  Junius Lett., lix. 307. Neither are we to look for perfection in any one man, nor for agreement among many.

  7.  Mutual conformity of things, whether due to likeness or to mutual adaptation; concord, harmony, affinity.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVI. xliv. (1495), 567. Yren hath agrement with the stone Adamas, and so the stone Adamas draweth yren to itself.

1586.  T. B., trans. La Primaudaye’s Fr. Acad., II. (1594), 531. When the image hath some agreement in forme with the thing represented.

1611.  Bible, 2 Cor. vi. 16. What agreement hath the Temple of God with idoles?

1790.  Paley, Hor. Paul., i. Wks. 1825, III. 6. Agreement or conformity between letters bearing the name of an ancient author, and a received history of that author’s life.

1855.  Brewster, Newton, II. xviii. 170. The agreement between his observations and the theory.

  8.  Gramm. Concord: see AGREE v. 15.

1669.  Milton, Gram., II. Concords (1847), 468/1. The agreement of words together in number, gender, case, and person, which is called concord.

1879.  J. A. H. Murray, Trans. Philol. Soc., 619. In the English ‘the men push the stone,’ we have neither formal expression of the destination [of the action] nor formal agreement of verb and subject.

  9.  Mostly pl. Agreeable qualities, circumstances or accessories. Now treated as Fr., les agréments.

1692.  Dryden, trans. St. Euremont’s Ess., 376. The Charms and Agreements natural to Women.

1732.  Mrs. Delany, Autobiog. (1861), I. 399. She has … all the agreement of embellishments that can be desired.

1737.  Warburton, in Boswell’s Johnson, I. Introd. 50. The art of adding the agreements to the most agreeable subject in the world, which is literary history.