consistentadj.n.

1648 R. Crashaw Steps to Temple (ed. 2) 49 Whose full, and all-unwrinkled face Nor sinkes nor swells with Time, or Place, But everywhere, and every while, Is one consistent solid smile.

a1677 J. Taylor Contempl. State Man (1684) i. vi. 60 A fair Vessel of Crystal, if it were as consistent and durable as Gold.

a1682 Sir T. Browne Let. to Friend (1690) 3 We run through variety of Looks, before we come to consistent and settled Faces.

1574 T. Newton tr. G. Gratarolo Direct. Health Magistrates & Studentes (title page) Such as bee in their consistent age, or neere thereunto.

1620 T. Venner Via Recta vii. 137 Very wholsome..especially for them that be past their consistent age.

1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica v. xv. 257 An habite..not consistent with the words of our Saviour. View more context for this quotation

1732 J. Arbuthnot Pract. Rules of Diet iii. 357 Such a Sensation is very consistent with an inflammatory Distemper.

1795 Cicely I. 102 Consistent was it to her character.

1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 450 It was impudent in them to pretend that their present conduct was consistent with their former language.

1868 J. S. Mill Eng. & Ireland 22 The rule of Ireland now rightfully belongs to those who, by means consistent with justice, will make the cultivators of the soil of Ireland the owners of it.

1651 T. Hobbes Leviathan ii. xxi. 108 Feare, and Liberty are consistent.

1664 H. Power Exper. Philos. Pref. sig. C4^v In the erection of a more judicious and consistent Fabrick.

1726 G. Leoni tr. L. B. Alberti Architecture I. 38 a A solid, regular, and consistent Structure. We call it regular and consistent when the Parts are not incongruous and disjointed, but are disposed in their proper Places.

1751 S. Johnson Rambler No. 178. ⁋3 An attempt to make contradictions consistent.

a1862 H. T. Buckle Hist. Civilisation Eng. (1869) III. v. 459 The most consistent of all combinations..great ignorance with great arrogance.

1884 B. Bosanquet et al. tr. H. Lotze Metaphysic 240 To ask whether to such a conception of it any complete and consistent sense could be given.

1737 A. Pope Epist. of Horace i. i. 137 Show me one, who has it in his pow'r To act consistent with himself an hour.

1750 in J. A. Picton City of Liverpool: Select. Munic. Rec. (1886) II. 101 They could not, consistent with their duty..discover it to your enemies and opponents.

1842 J. Bischoff Comprehensive Hist. Woollen Manuf. II. 357 Consistent, however, with the character of the country, the mountain sheep are the most numerous.

1902 J. W. Mellor Higher Math. x. 405 We conclude that three equations are consistent with each other, only when the determinant of the coefficients and absolute term[s] of three linear equations in x, y, z, are [read is] equal to zero.

1925 R. A. Fisher Statist. Methods i. 12 Consistent statistics..all tend more and more nearly to give the correct values, as the sample is more and more increased.

1928 F. P. Ramsey in Proc. London Math. Soc. 30 271 If it [sc. such a formula] is true for some interpretations (whether or not for all) we shall call it consistent.

1937 Jrnl. Symbolic Logic 2 131 If P₁ is simply consistent, the formula stating its simple consistency cannot be proved in P₁.

1972 A. W. F. Edwards Likelihood v. 79 This property of evaluates, that they approach the true value of the parameter (where such a concept is meaningful) as the sample size increases, is called consistency, and evaluates are said to be consistent.

1972 M. Kline Math. Thought xxxviii. 913 By the early 1870s several basic non-Euclidean geometries..had been introduced... The fundamental question..was whether they were consistent.

1974 G. Fuller College Algebra (ed. 3) vi. 84 Solve each pair of equations, if found consistent, by the substitution method.

1975 I. Stewart Concepts Mod. Math. viii. 117 A system of axioms which does not contradict itself is said to be consistent.