[formed to represent L. appōnĕre, on the analogy of compose, expose, suppose, and the other assumed representatives of compounds of pōnĕre, formed on OFr. poser:—L. pausāre, after this vb. came, through form-assoc. with positio, positum, to be treated as the representative of L. pōnĕre (see PAUSE, POSE). In Fr. apposer is found as early as 13th c.]
1. To put or apply one thing to another, as a seal to a document; to put (food) before.
1593. J. Carey, Lett., in Tytler, Hist. Scotl. (1864), IV. 206. The king doth too much appose himself to the Papist faction.
1596. Chapman, Iliad, IX. 95. Atrides … food sufficient Appos’d before them, and the peers appos’d their hands to it.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, II. 228. Fire to heate whatsoever is apposed.
1662. Evelyn, Chalcogr. (1769), 43. One of the ancientest gravings … to which any mark is apposed.
1862. F. Hall, Hindu Philos. Syst., 214. As the iron moves, when the precious stone, void of will, is apposed to it.
1868. Browning, Ring & Bk., IV. 1495. The last seal publicly apposed to shame.
2. To place in apposition or juxtaposition; to range side by side.
c. 1800. K. White, Rem. (1837), 391. Original conceptions luminously displayed and judiciously apposed.
1870. Rolleston, Anim. Life, Introd. p. xx. The boundaries of species … may be closely apposed … along considerable lengths.
