[f. L. fūs- ppl. stem of fundĕre to pour, melt, FOUND v.]

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  1.  trans. To make fluid by means of intense heat; to liquefy, melt. Also with apart, together.

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1681.  trans. Willis’ Rem. Med. Wks., Vocab., Fuse, To melt as Mettals.

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1800.  trans. Lagrange’s Chem., I. 321. If it be still exposed to heat, it … becomes fused into a transparent glass.

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1816.  J. Smith, The Panorama of Science and Art, II. 756. As soon as the colours are fused, the intensity of the fire should be abated, and suffered gradually to cool.

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1863.  Tyndall, Heat, xiv. § 113. A quantity of silver which had been fused in a ladle was allowed to solidify.

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1866.  Livingstone, Last Jrnls. (1873), I. iv. 85. These rocks look as if a stratified rock had been nearly melted, and the strata fused together by the heat.

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1878.  B. Taylor, Deukalion, II. i. 58.

        As by fierce heat, the chains be fused apart,
Which now the tears of ages rust in vain.

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  absol.  1831.  Carlyle, Schiller, in Fraser’s Mag., III. March, 134/2. Like the volcanic fire that smoulders and fuses in secret, they [his feelings and passions] accumulated till their force grew irresistible.

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1879.  Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 359/2. Collect the crystals, dry, and fuse.

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  b.  Of a flux: To facilitate the fusion of.

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1796.  Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), I. 6. They [fluxes] fuse lime without effervescence.

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1800.  trans. Lagrange’s Chem., I. 378. Ammoniacal phosphate of soda fuses this matter perfectly.

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  c.  fig. Often with the sense: To blend intimately, amalgamate, unite into one whole, as by melting together.

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1817.  Coleridge, Biog. Lit., 149. He diffuses a tone and spirit of unity, that blends, and (as it were) fuses, each into each.

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1851.  Robertson, Serm., Ser. III. xi. 136. The threat of foreign invasion had fused down and broken the edges of conflict and variance.

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1857.  H. Reed, Lect. Brit. Poets, iv. 136. Fused by the heat of poetic genius and poured out in one glowing and glittering flood.

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1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. xxii. 159. It was an easy task to me to fuse myself amongst them as if I had been an old acquaintance, and we joyfully slid, galloped, and rolled together down the residue of the mountain.

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1867.  Goldwin Smith, Three English Statesmen (1882), 12. Then Laud laid his rash hand upon the religious independence of Scotland; and the Scotch nation, nobles and commons, ministers and people, wonderfully fused together by fiery enthusiasm, poured like a lava torrent on the aggressor.

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1869.  Farrar, Fam. Speech, iv. (1873), 121. A Chinese grammar cannot … be fused into the moulds of our Aryan logic.

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  d.  transf. To liquefy, attenuate, thin (the blood).

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1704.  F. Fuller, Med. Gymn. (1711), 111. They fuze and divide it [the Blood], and break its Globules.

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1733.  Cheyne, Eng. Malady, II. iv. § 4 (1734), 147. The Purgatives are either simply design’d (in such a Case) to cleanse the Primæ Viæ, or to fuse and thin the Blood.

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1822–34.  [see FUSED ppl. a.].

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  2.  intr. To become fluid or liquefied with heat; to melt.

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1800.  trans. Lagrange’s Chem., I. 167. A mixture of these three substances fuses much easier.

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1838.  T. Thomson, Chem. Org. Bodies, 16. When the crystals are heated to 208° they fuse into a liquid.

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1858.  Froude, Hist. Eng., III. 74. They were to fret and chafe till the dust was beaten off, and the grains of gold could meet and fuse.

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1881.  F. Young, Every man his own Mechanic, § 1500. 678. By hard solder is meant one that only fuses at a high temperature.

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  b.  fig.

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1840.  Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xxxvii. Eyes so small and near together, that his broken nose alone seemed to prevent their meeting and fusing into one of the usual size.

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1873.  Dixon, Two Queens, I. III. iii. 131. His passion for the cross was no less ardent than his passion for the legendary court. In truth, these passions fused and centred in one radiant point. King Arthur fought with paynims for the cross of Christ, and Henry set this glory of the cross before him as his own peculiar star.

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  3.  Anat. Of contiguous vessels, bones, etc.: To coalesce.

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1870.  Rolleston, Anim. Life, Introd. 56. There are two systemic aortæ which either fuse, or anastomose.

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1872.  Mivart, Elem. Anat., 39. In Tortoises all the trunk vertebræ are fused.

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1878.  Bell, Gegenbaur’s Comp. Anat., 456. In the Anura these fuse together on either side to form a fronto-parietal.

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  Hence Fusing ppl. a.

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1817.  Coleridge, Biog. Lit., II. xxii. 171. The blinding, fusing power of Imagination and Passion.

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1873.  Symonds, Grk. Poets, i. 10. This we do know, that the fire of moulding, fusing, and controlling genius in some one single brain has made the Iliad and the Odyssey what they are.

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