[f. prec. sb. Cf. F. fonctionner.]
1. intr. To fulfil a function; to perform ones duty or part; to operate; to act.
1856. Masson, Chatterton, II. iv. (1874), 227. Debt, though negative property, still is a kind of property, and functions as such to the advantage of its possessor.
1862. Marsh, Eng. Lang., 40. When played upon by an expert operator it functioned, as the French say, very well.
1876. Maudsley, Physiol. Mind (1877), v. 328. When objects and events are presented to the senses there will be formed what are called ideas, and the mind will function along certain definite lines or paths which are known as perception, memory, reasoning, emotion, and volition.
1889. Edin. Rev., Oct., 533. No instrument of despotism has ever functioned with so little noise.
1894. H. Drummond, Ascent of Man, 257. The lowest forms of life are little more than animated stomachs, and in the higher groups the nutritive system is the first to be developed, the first to function, and the last to cease its work.
b. Phys.
1878. Bell, Gegenbaurs Comp. Anat., 7. We also know Vertebrata (Amphibia), in which the clefts function only for a time as respiratory organs, and close up later on.
1887. Athenæum, 29 Oct., 572/1. Groups having the nephridia functioning as efferent ducts for the gonads.
1896. Life & Lett. G. J. Romanes, 16. But in no case had it been shewn that they [nerves] functioned as such.
2. To hold a function (see FUNCTION sb. 5 b) or ceremonial meeting. ? nonce-use.
1890. The Saturday Review, LXIX. 10 May, 554/1. Two other Societiesneither very wise, but neither as mischievous or as imbecile as thisthe National Temperance League and the International Arbitration Association, functioned on the same day under the respective presidencies of the Bishop of London and Lord Herschell.
Hence Functioning vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1881. W. S. Tuke, trans. Charcots Clin. Lect., 232. Disturbances resulting from the abnormal functioning of the affected organ.
1894. Westm. Mag., 8 May, 2/3. The mere show, the social functioning and ceremony, remains, although everyone knows that the life of the metropolis no longer expresses itself through the City Corporation.
1894. H. Drummond, Ascent of Man, ii. 1167. Subcutaneous muscles for shaking off flies from the skin, or for erecting the hair of the scalp, are common among quadrupeds, and these are represented in the human subject by the still functioning muscles of the forehead, and occasionally of the head itself.