adˈhi(ə)r, əd-, -iə verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: Middle French or Latin; Middle French adhérer, from Latin adhaerēre, from ad- + haerēre to stick — more at hesitate
intransitive verb
1. : to hold, follow, or maintain loyalty steadily and consistently (as to a person, group, principle, or way)
the agrarian party, to which he adhered to the end of his life — V.L.Parrington
2. obsolete : to be consistent or in accord
nor time nor place did then adhere — Shakespeare
3.
a. : to hold fast or stick by or as if by gluing, suction, grasping, or fusing
paper adhering to the wall
b. : to become joined (as in pathological adhesion)
the lung sometimes adheres to the pleura
4. : to agree to join : bind oneself to observance (as of a treaty)
other tribes adhered to the pact — P.M.Angle
5. Scots law : to cohabit as husband or wife
6. botany : to display adhesion
transitive verb
: to cause to stick fast
paper that had been adhered to a surface with glue
Synonyms:
stick , cling , cleave , cohere : adhere is a general term somewhat more bookish in suggestion than stick to indicate any holding to, especially steadily and over a period of time
the glue adhering to the frame
dried blood still adhering to the cloth
to revise our ideas and not to adhere to what passes for respectable opinion — J.H.Robinson
stick , more familiar and forceful, may more strongly indicate close tenacious holding to, as though fixed in, embedded, glued
the barb stuck in the flesh
the molasses stuck to his fingers
both sides sticking obstinately to their old positions — New Statesman & Nation
cling suggests a hanging on or holding to tenaciously as though in danger or fear of losing one's grip
tall spruce, their roots clinging tenaciously to the few inches of soil, crown the summit — American Guide Series: Maine
throwing men and women into the sea with a ship to cling to and a chance of reaching another country — G.B.Shaw
hopes which Huxley cherished and to which many still cling — J.W.Krutch
cleave , a rather literary word, implies a close sticking or holding of or as if of flat layers glued or plastered together, a very close, lasting, and indissoluble attachment
the soaked shirt cleaving to his shoulders
to love one maiden only, cleave to her, and worship her by years of noble deeds — Alfred Tennyson
cohere may indicate either a physical sticking together in a mass or an abstract common principle or general consistency that facilitates joining or uniting; it applies to the holding together of like things, of parts of a whole
the mortar will cohere to the bricks
the parts of the exposition do not cohere