Tenacity
[tɪ'næsɪtɪ] or [tə'næsɪti]
Definition
(n.) The quality or state of being tenacious; as, tenacity, or retentiveness, of memory; tenacity, or persistency, of purpose.
(n.) That quality of bodies which keeps them from parting without considerable force; cohesiveness; the effect of attraction; -- as distinguished from brittleness, fragility, mobility, etc.
(n.) That quality of bodies which makes them adhere to other bodies; adhesiveness; viscosity.
(n.) The greatest longitudinal stress a substance can bear without tearing asunder, -- usually expressed with reference to a unit area of the cross section of the substance, as the number of pounds per square inch, or kilograms per square centimeter, necessary to produce rupture.
Inputed by Bernard
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Retentiveness, tenaciousness.[2]. Adhesiveness, cohesiveness, glutinousness, viscidity.[3]. Stubbornness, pertinacity, obstinacy.
Checked by Claudia
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Retentiveness, cohesiveness, stubbornness, fixity, pertinacity,[See BLAST]
Typist: Moira
Unserious Contents or Definition
n. A certain quality of the human hand in its relation to the coin of the realm. It attains its highest development in the hand of authority and is considered a serviceable equipment for a career in politics. The following illustrative lines were written of a Californian gentleman in high political preferment who has passed to his accounting:
Checked by Freda
Examples
- Another episode of this period is curious in its revelation of the tenacity with which Edison has always held to some of his oldest possessions with a sense of personal attachment. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- The ridges upon which Vicksburg is built, and those back to the Big Black, are composed of a deep yellow clay of great tenacity. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- Yet, even he returned to the public-house on each occasion with the tenacity of a confirmed drunkard. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- So he locked up the Bower and they set forth: Mr Venus taking his arm, and keeping it with remarkable tenacity. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- For writing or drawing upon paper, to be transferred to the stone, more wax is added to the ink, to give it greater tenacity. Frederick C. Bakewell. Great Facts.
- She felt his invisible tenacity. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Think of her appearance, Watson--her manner, her suppressed excitement, her restlessness, her tenacity in asking questions. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- I cannot conceive why nature did not give you a bulldog's head, for you have all a bulldog's tenacity, said Shirley. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- That she should be obliged to do what she intensely disliked, was an idea which turned her quiet tenacity into active invention. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
Editor: Sharon