also 4–6 anex(e, 5–7 annexe, 6 adnex. [a. Fr. annexe-r to join, f. a(n)nexe:—L. annex-um, pa. pple. of annect-ĕre or adnect-ĕre to tie to, f. ad to + nect-ĕre to tie, bind. In med.L. annex-āre, = Fr. annexer, was in common use in sense 3, in eccles. and legal language, and probably contributed to the same formal use in Eng.; hence also annexātio: see ANNEXATION.]
I. Without the idea of subordination.
1. To join, unite (to): a. things. arch.
1425. E. E. Wills (1882), 64. I haue annexed þis my wille with my testament … vnder my seal of myn armes.
1477. Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 12. To ánnexe the loue of god and of your feithe vnto sapience.
1538. Leland, Itin., II. 98. Whos Chirch was hard adnexid to the Est of the Paroch Chirch.
1598. Barckley, Felic. Man (1631), 673. The soule that is annexed to the body.
1641. French, Distill., iii. (1651), 86. The last crooked pipe, to which you must annex a receiver.
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xx. 503. The windmill was probably turned to the wind by a pole annexed to an axle at the base.
† b. persons. Obs.
1526. Skelton, Magnyf., 200. Good fortune hath annexed us together.
1642. Rogers, Naaman, 31. She will annexe and apply her selle to Christ (after a fashion) for aide.
II. To join in a subordinate capacity. Const. to.
2. To join or unite materially, as an accessory. arch.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. § 10. Some places instituted for physic have annexed the commodity of gardens for simples.
1628. Prynne, Love-Lockes, 18. Ye annex I know not what enormities of Periwiges, and counterfeite Haire.
1671. J. Webster, Metallogr., x. 141. Having annexed to it some slates and other matter.
1863. Kemble, Resid. Georgia, 18. To each settlement is annexed a cook’s shop.
3. To add as an additional part to existing possessions (with or without local contiguity).
1509. Barclay, Ship of Fooles (1570), 202. Our marches marring as much as he [the Turk] may do, And much of them annexeth his vnto.
1534. trans. Polyd. Verg., Eng. Hist. (1846), I. 57. Julius Cæsar annexed Brittaine to the Romaine emperie.
1684. Scanderbeg Rediv., ii. 10. This Country … has now annext the Great Dukedom of Lithuania.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., II. 273. Appropriators may annex the great tithes to the vicarages.
1800. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., I. 60. The whole country is permanently annexed to the British Empire.
4. To add to a composition or book, to append.
c. 1450. Merlin, xx. 327. That he dide write, he anexed to the booke that Blase wrote.
1592. trans. Junius on Rev. xx. This story of the Dragon must bee anexed unto that place.
1641. Hinde, J. Bruen, xxxviii. 117. He presently annexeth a note of remembrance.
1667. Boyle, in Phil. Trans., II. 601. To which he annexes a Disquisition of the Scurvey.
1799. S. Turner, Anglo-Sax. (1828), I. 312. He annexes almost invariably a lamentation of their festive indulgence.
1871. C. Davies, Metric Syst., III. 145. To complete the system a vocabulary of new denominations was annexed.
5. To affix (a seal; hence a signature or other mark of sanction). arch.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks (1638), 43. Nothing … was accounted of any force, except his [the emperor’s] approbation were thereunto annexed.
1644. Milton, Areop. (Arb.), 59. Examin’d by an appointed officer, whose hand should be annext.
1659. Baxter, in Eedes, Christ’s Exalt., To Reader. Chearfully annex thy attestation that they are true.
1771. Junius Lett., xlviii. 252. What further sanction … will you annex to any resolution of the present house of Commons?
6. To join or attach as an attribute or qualification.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Wife’s T., 29. That genterye Is nought annexed [v.r. anexed] to possessioun.
1430. Lydg., Chron., II. x. Seying in hym most vertuous and good Mercye annexed vnto royall blode.
1537. ? Tindale, Exp. John, 32. The dedes were unperfecte, and had synne annexed unto them.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xviii. 91. It is annexed to the Soveraignty, to be Iudge.
a. 1778. Anecd. Pitt, III. xxxix. 53. The privileges … which are annexed to the peerage.
1817. Chalmers, Astr. Disc., ii. 45. When we look back on the days of Newton, we annex a kind of mysterious greatness to him.
7. To add or attach as a condition.
1588. Fraunce, Lawiers Log., I. xii. 53 b. Such conditions as were annexed to the first donation.
1628. Meade, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., I. 348. I. 278. There was annexed to that Report that the Judges should sitt at the Tower.
1762. Hume, Hist. Eng. Jul. C. to Hen. VII., viii. 280. He, tho’ he granted him the commission, annexed a clause, that it should not empower him [etc.].
1818. Hallam, Mid. Ages, I. iv. 416. The cortes, iin 1393, having made a grant to Henry III., annexed this condition.
8. To attach as a consequence.
1538. Starkey, England, 95. Thys thyngys folow, and be annexyd as commyn effectys.
1561. T. N[orton], Calvin’s Inst., IV. xix. (1634), 723. Extreme annointing hath neither ordinance of God to be grounded on, nor promise of grace annexed.
1708. Swift, Sacram. Test, Wks. 1755, II. I. 126. It is not reasonable that revenues should be annexed to one opinion more than another.
1736. Butler, Anal., II. v. 200. The future Punishment, which God has annext to Vice.
1876. M. Arnold, Lit. & Dogma, 7. Salvation is not annexed to a right knowledge of geometry.
