[ad. L. fūsiōn-em, n. of action f. fundĕre to pour. Cf. FOISON and F. fusion.]
1. The action or operation of fusing or rendering fluid by heat; the state of flowing or fluidity in consequence of heat. Also in phrases † of easy, hard fusion: melted with ease or difficulty. † Watery fusion: the melting of certain crystals by heat in their own water of crystallization.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 357. To brynge it to fusion or meltynge, and to purifie or pourge it from drosse.
1594. Plat, The Jewell House of Art and Nature, I. 14. It is possible to make Glasse of all kinds of Ashes, although some sortes of them bee of harder fusion or melting than others.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., II. i. 51. Flints and pebbles are subject unto fusion.
1683. Pettus, Fleta Min., I. (1686), 5. The hard, harsh, gross and crude Oars, cannot be proved like those of an easier Fusion.
1718. Quincy, Compl. Disp., 12. This Operation is … seldom perform’d without Melting or Fusion.
1810. T. Thomson, A System of Chemistry (ed. 4), II. 69. When exposed to the heat of boiling water, they undergo the watery fusion; that is to say, the water which they contain becomes sufficient to keep the barytes in solution.
1812–6. J. Smith, The Panorama of Science and Art, I. 5. The texture of steel is rendered more uniform by fusion.
1832. G. R. Porter, Porcelain & Gl., 70. That degree of heat must be employed which will give perfect fusion to the glaze and cause it to spread regularly over the surface.
1878. Huxley, Physiography, 199. It [the earth] existed at one time in a state of fusion.
fig. 1850. Mrs. Jameson, Leg. Monast. Ord. (1863), 227. I have touched upon that wonderful religious movement which, in the thirteenth century, threw men’s minds into a state of fusion.
b. concr. A fused mass.
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 138. The fusion is to be raised to the tempering height.
1863. Fr. A. Kemble, Resid. in Georgia, 61. The sun went down, or rather seemed to dissolve bodily into the glowing clouds, which appeared but a fusion of the great orb of light.
1882. T. Coan, Life in Hawaii, 330. Drawing out small lumps of the adhering fusion, they moulded it, before it had time to cool, into various forms.
† 2. Path. and Phys. a. Thinning, attenuation (of the blood). Cf. FUSE v.2 1 d. b. In etymological sense: A pouring; pouring forth (of the blood); ? = CIRCULATION. Obs.
1710. T. Fuller, Pharm. Extemp., 54. A Decoction of Burdock … keeps the blood in a due mixture, and hinders its Fusion.
1725. N. Robinson, Th. Physick, 114. Contraction of the Arteries, on whose Forces the Division and Fusion of the Blood entirely depend.
3. The union or blending together of different things (whether material or immaterial) as if by melting, so as to form one whole; the result or state of being so blended. Const. into, with.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. iv. (1869), I. 24. By fusion of the parts they can easily be reunited.
1830–3. Lyell, Princ. Geol. (1875), II. III. xxxviii. 353. There seems to have been a partial fusion of the mammalia at some remote period.
1831. Lamb, Elia, Ser. II. Ellistoniana. That harmonious fusion of the manners of the player into those of everyday life.
a. 1834. Coleridge, Shaks. Notes (1849), 10. The fusion of the sensual into the spiritual.
1841. F. Myers, Cath. Th., IV. § 50. 434. A fusion of nations, too, and an assimilation of races—an abolition of barriers and an intercommunion of all human interests—these things are beginninng visibly to take place.
1855. Milman, Lat. Chr. (1864), IV. VII. vi. 206. This singular union, this absolute fusion of the religion of peace with barbarous warfare; this elevation of the Christian knighthood, as it were, into a second hierarchy (even before the establishment of the military orders), had already in some degree begun before the Crusades.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Race, Wks. (Bohn), II. 22. Everything English is a fusion of distinct and antagonistic elements.
1875. Maine, Hist. Inst., xiii. 398. He [Hobbes] argues for a fusion of law and equity, a registration of titles to land, and a systematic penal code.
1880. Bastian, Brain, 28. Fusions of ganglia may occur during the development of some animals.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 582. The embryo-sac is formed by the fusion of two Cells equivalent to spore-mother-cells.
b. Politics. The coalition (of parties or factions).
1845. Disraeli, Sybil (1863), 22. Political conciliation became the slang of the day, and the fusion of parties the babble of clubs.
1861. May, Const. Hist. (1863), I. i. 8. A new reign was favorable … to the fusion of parties.
1879. Green, Read. Eng. Hist., vi. 33. Their union was the result of no direct policy of fusion; on the contrary Dunstan’s policy preserved to the conquered Danelagh its local rights and local usages.
attrib. 1864. Greeley, Amer. Confl., I. xxii. 328. The refusal of part of the Douglas men to support the Fusion ticket (composed of three Douglas, two Bell, and two Breckinridge men).
1896. Daily News, 27 July, 7/5. Great difficulties are inevitable in making a fusion ticket in the various States.
