| 释义 |
▪ I. group, n.|gruːp|
Also 8–9 groupe, (8 grouppe).
[ad. F. groupe, ad. It. gruppo group; cf. groppo knot, groppa crupper of a horse, Sp. grupo, gorupo, grupa, knot, cluster, group, Pg. garupa crupper; prob. like F. croupe, Pr. cropa crupper, adapted from Teut. *kroppo-: see crop. The etymological sense would appear to be ‘lump’ or ‘mass’. In Eng. the artistic senses came earliest, and the wider use was at first chiefly transferred.]
1. spec.
a. Fine Art. An assemblage of (two or more) figures or objects forming in combination either a complete design, or a distinct portion of a design.
1686[see gruppo]. 1695Dryden Du Fresnoy's Art Paint. 20 The Figures in the Grouppes ought not to be like each other in their Motions, any more than in their Parts. 1710Steele Tatler No. 194 ⁋15 The beautiful Grouppe of Figures in the Corner of the Temple. 1713― Guardian No. 21 ⁋5 The Huddle Group of those who stand most distant. 1756–7tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) III. 94 A very pretty marble groupe by Cosmo, of the virgin Mary with the child Jesus in her arms, and John the Baptist kissing his feet. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. II. 557 Besides the temple are various images and groupes..cut in the stone. 1833Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life (1870) III. i. 2 They even work groups of figures in tent stitch for screens. 1848A. Jameson Sacr. & Leg. Art (1850) 100 The group in one corner, of a child starting from a dog, is admired for its truth.
fig.1816F. H. Naylor Hist. Germany II. xxv. 524 It has so often been my task to delineate scenes of bloodshed and desolation, that it is hardly possible any longer to transpose the groupe, or vary the colours.
b. Mus. (See quots.)
[1674, etc.: see gruppo.] 1727–51Chambers Cycl. s.v., In music, a Group is one of the kinds of diminutions of long notes, which in the writing forms a sort of group, or cluster. The group usually consists of four crotchets, quavers, or semiquavers, tied together, at the discretion of the composer. 1876Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms, Group, (1) a series of notes, of small time-value, grouped together; a division or run. (2) The method of setting out band parts in score.
c. Arch. (See quot.)
1731Bailey vol. II, Group, in Architecture, a term used of columns, as they say, a group of columns, when there are three or four columns joined together on the same pedestal.
d. A set of letters used in coding.
1911Encycl. Brit. XXV. 72/2 Each word or ‘group’ sent by the Morse code must be ‘answered’ before the sender passes on to another... All cipher ‘groups’ are repeated en bloc. 1916T. E. Lawrence Lett. (1938) 211, I don't suppose my wire of conditions in Feisul's camp will get through for some days yet, as it is a long one of about 400 groups. 1966M. R. D. Foot SOE in France ix. 241 A suspicious-minded staff officer noticed both coded telegrams had the same number of groups.
2. gen. An assemblage of persons, animals, or material things, standing near together, so as to form a collective unity; a knot (of people), a cluster (of things). In early use the word often conveys a notion of confused aggregation, which in recent use is not implied.
a. of persons.
1748Chesterfield Lett. (1792) II. cxlvii. 117 You will find, in every groupe of company two principal figures, viz. the fine Lady, and the fine Gentleman. 1769F. Brooke Emily Montague (1784) IV. cxciii. 44 Were you here..we should be the happiest groupe on the globe. 1803E. Hay Insurr. Wexford 134 As the different groupes thus collected were perceived by the yeomanry, these pursued and cut them down. 1826J. F. Cooper Mohicans (1829) II. vi. 85 They stood, clustered in a dark and savage groupe. 1863Geo. Eliot Romola i, The notary turned and left the group with a look of indignant contempt. 1897Cavalry Tactics xii. 61 To compare the merits of the two systems taught in textbooks, viz. the cordon or continuous line, and the method of cossack posts or groups.
b. of things, esp. natural objects.
1736Bolingbroke Patriot. (1749) 236 Nothing was to be seen but a confused groupe of mis-shapen, and imperfect forms. 1759B. Martin Nat. Hist. Eng. I. Cornwall 4 It consists of a groupe of Rocks. 1807G. Chalmers Caledonia I. i. ii. 72 note, Smaller Carns, scattered, at different distances, generally in groupes of eight, or ten together. 1830Herschel Stud. Nat. Phil. 240 The accidental fracture of a fine groupe of crystals. 1841W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl. I. 318 Elba..belongs to the group of Corsica and Sardinia. 1848W. H. Bartlett Egypt to Pal. xv. (1879) 319 Two or three large mountain groups were in sight. 1851Carpenter Man. Phys. (ed. 2) 424 The Pancreas..presents itself in the condition of a group of prolonged follicles. 1872Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 131 The lodes referred to compose the westerly group. 1885C. Leudesdorf Cremona's Proj. Geom. 149 The same is therefore true of the groups of points in which these pencils are cut by the transversal.
c. spec. A group of hits made by a series of shots fired at a target; = shot group.
1911Encycl. Brit. XXVI. 419/2 The position of his shot group with reference to the bull's-eye does not matter; if his group is comprised within a 6 or 12-inch ring (at 100 yards range) he is passed on to more advanced practices at service targets. 1913A. G. Fulton Notes on Rifle Shooting 27 If the rifle gradually or suddenly..changes to a lower or higher group, there is no doubt that some adjustment is necessary to the bands or fore-ends. 1958J. A. Barlow Elem. Rifle Shooting (ed. 5) i. 4 When the firer is satisfied that the rifle is maintaining a good group under these conditions, a more severe test must be applied, since some rifles shoot very nicely when cold, but tend to throw a more scattered group when hot.
3. A number of persons or things regarded as forming a unity on account of any kind of mutual or common relation, or classed together on account of a certain degree of similarity.
a. of persons.
1782W. Cowper Poems I. 6 But where, good Sir, do you confine your kings? There—said his guide, the groupe is full in view. 1807[see family n. 9 a]. 1809–10Coleridge Friend (1837) III. 187 As the modes of error are endless, the hundred forms of polytheism had each its groupe of partizans. 1872Bagehot Physics & Pol. (1876) 213 Man can only make progress in co-operative groups. 1891Speaker 11 July 36/1 Any group of 50,000 citizens will thus be able to force the Federal Chambers to deal with any matter. 1935Huxley & Haddon We Europeans iii. 104 It follows that practically all human groups are of decidedly mixed origin. 1970E. D. Chapple Culture & Biological Man xv. 307 During the struggle, life crises occur and, afterward, rites of passage..are necessary mediators to re-establish the equilibrium of the group.
b. of things.
At Oxford University the subjects of the Final (Pass) examination for the degree of B.A. are classified into ‘groups’, called respectively ‘Group A’, ‘Group B’, etc. Hence ‘to read for groups’ is colloquially used for ‘to study with a view to taking a pass degree’.
1729Savage Wanderer ii. 200 A Mirror in one Hand collective shows, Varied and multiplied, that Group of Woes. 1748Hartley Observ. Man i. iii. 381 The Power of recollecting a large Groupe of Words. 1852Disraeli Sel. Sp. (1882) I. 419 The question naturally divided itself into several groups—if I may use a word now familiar to us. 1871Ruskin Fors Clav. I. i. 3 We begin to-day another group of ten years, not in happy circumstances. 1892Westcott Gospel of Life 101 Natural groups of religions and natural groups of languages are generally coincident. 1899Speaker 16 Dec. 289/2 No better text-book could be given to a young man intent upon taking his groups in the Oxford Schools.
c. Specific senses in Chem.: (i) In qualitative analysis, a set of ions or radicals the presence of at least one of which in a presumed mixture of compounds can be ascertained by a single test specific for that set, provided that a standard procedure is followed; esp. any such set of the more usual cations which are precipitated from solution together in the course of analysis.
1843J. L. Bullock tr. Fresenius's Elem. Instr. Chem. Anal. i. iii. 77 To teach the relation of the various bodies to reagents, it is usual..to treat of the substances individually..and to point out their characteristic reactions. I have, however,..deemed it more judicious..to collect into groups those substances which are in many respects analogous. Ibid. 82 The solutions of the salts of the alkaline earths are..not precipitated by sulphuretted hydrogen,..but alkaline carbonates and phosphates do precipitate them. This relation distinguishes the oxides of the second group [sc. barytes, strontian, lime, magnesia] from those of the first [sc. potash, soda, ammonia]. Ibid. ii. ii. 257 If, therefore, we add to our solution..Hydrochloric acid, we remove from the solution the metallic oxides of the first section of the fifth group. 1869Harcourt & Madan Exercises Pract. Chem. 250 The chlorides, iodides, nitrates, &c. are also classed together in one group, as having the common property of not being precipitated from aqueous solutions by barium chloride. 1888A. H. Sexton Outl. Qual. Anal. ii. 24 The metals..are classified for analytical purposes into six groups—not according to their natural affinities, but according to their behaviour with certain reagents. The number of divisions adopted, and the exact lines of demarcation vary. 1938Thorpe's Dict. Appl. Chem. (ed. 4) II. 551/1 The filtrate from the foregoing sulphides should be examined thoroughly as to the complete precipitation of all metals of analytical Group II. 1957H. Holness Adv. Inorg. Qual. Anal. 35 The case of platinum appearing in this Group of elements is of some interest for it is only precipitated here when selenium is present as well.
(ii) One of the sets of elements which show some similarity in chemical and physical properties and which are commonly represented in a column of the periodic table.
Nine groups are now recognized, numbered O–VIII, which represent the eight groups of Mendeleev's revised periodic table (1871) with the addition of the noble gases. Groups I–VII are each divided into two sub-groups in which the similarity in properties is more marked.
[1863J. A. R. Newlands in Chem. News 7 Feb. 71 Many chemists..have..pointed out some very interesting relations between the equivalents of bodies belonging to the same natural family or group. Ibid., Group I. Metals of the alkalies:—Lithium, 7; sodium, 23; potassium, 39; rubidium, 85; cæsium, 123; thallium, 204... Group II. Metals of the alkaline earths:—Magnesium, 12; calcium, 20; strontium, 43·8; barium, 68·5... Group VII.—Nitrogen, 14; phosphorus, 31; arsenic, 75; osmium, 99·6; antimony, 120·3; bismuth, 213... Group XI.—Mercury, 100; lead, 103·7; silver, 108.] 1871H. E. Roscoe Less. Elem. Chem. (new ed.) xxv. 278 We have the carbon group, the nitrogen group,..that of the alkaline metals, and that of the metals of the alkaline earths. 1922J. W. Mellor Inorg. & Theoret. Chem. I. vi. 258 The valency of the elements shows a peculiar relation, for the maximum valency rises from 1 to 8 in passing along a given series from the first to the last group. 1950N. V. Sidgwick Chem. Elements I. 11 Hydrogen..was one of the chief problems of the original Periodic Table, since it has close affinities both with the alkali metals of Group I and with the halogens of Group VII. 1952T. Moeller Inorg. Chem. xix. 859 The sulfides of the Group IIb elements are water insoluble. 1959R. A. Smith Semiconductors iii. 61 (heading) Energy levels of group III or group V impurities in group IV semiconductors. 1963J. Hicks Compreh. Chem. xiii. 247 Elements in the same group usually have the same valency.
(iii) Any combination of atoms (usually composed of more than one element) which, being recognizable in a number of compounds and persisting through a series of chemical changes, is regarded as a distinct entity.
1869Harcourt & Madan Exercises in Pract. Chem. i. v. 140 In many cases a group of two or more elements appears to be more easily detached from a substance than the individual elements; the substance, like a crystal, cleaving more easily in some directions than in others. 1894G. S. Newth Text-bk. Inorg. Chem. iv. 22 It is some⁓times necessary to represent the presence in a molecule of certain groups of atoms, groups which seem to hold together, and often to function as a single atom. 1962D. H. Calam in A. Pirie Lens Metabolism Rel. Cataract 439 At the low pH employed, only strongly acidic groups remain charged, most of the carboxyl groups are unionized.
d. One of the constituent bodies of the (Oxford) Group(s) Movement (or Oxford Group), a religious revivalist movement brought from America to England in 1921 by Frank Buchman, characterized by the ‘sharing’ of personal problems by groups. Hence ˈGrouper, ˈGroupist, a member of the movement; ˈGroupism, the principles of the movement; ˈgroupy a. (used disparagingly). Cf. Buchmanism, Moral Rearmament s.v. moral a. 7 f.
[1923H. Begbie Life Changers iv. 101 A group soon formed in his room of men who really longed for spiritual life... F.B. [sc. Frank Buchman]..sent him over to Oxford..to begin there a similar work of personal religion. ]1928Isis 16 May 1/1 Attendance at several of them [sc. meetings] is a preliminary step to admission to a ‘group’—a gathering of perhaps four or five friends... Here..souls are laid bare by hysterical confession, and with a fervour which no longer pretends to be religious the tenets of the doctrine are discussed. Ibid. 25/1 Buchmanism, to give the Group its popular name, bases the whole of Christianity on four points—Honesty, Unselfishness, Purity and Love. Ibid. 24 May 34/1 In three of the Societies, no group meetings had been held. 1931A Group Speaks iii. 100 What I owe to the Cambridge Group can never be estimated. 1932A. J. Russell For Sinners Only viii. 109 The well-dressed Doctor of Divinity..founder of the Oxford Group. Ibid. 116 A kindly and fruitful worker in the Oxford Group Movement. Ibid. 118 The Thursday night Group meeting. 1933H. H. Henson Oxford Groups 7 Religion—unless all the masters of the spiritual life throughout Christian history are mistaken—is not quite so cheerful a matter as these gay, almost uproarious teams of missioning Groupists affirm. Ibid. 9 A religious system like Groupism, which appears to be mainly adapted to the needs of adolescents, can hardly have much staying power. Ibid. 15, I have read as many publications of the Groups Movement as I could. Ibid. 24 The movement commonly designated, though rather misleadingly, ‘The Oxford Group Movement’, of which the founder and director is an American Lutheran minister named Frank Buchman. 1934R. Macaulay Going Abroad v. 49 The next thing will be..you'll go groupy. Ibid. xx. 160 The eyes of the Oxford Groupers brightened. Ibid. xxiv. 201 A cheerful company—the four Groupers. Ibid. xxix. 252 There is a book the Groupists all seem to recommend and like called Inspired Children. 1937W. H. Auden in Auden & MacNeice Lett. fr. Iceland xiii. 203, I am no Grouper, I will never share With any prig. 1937F. T. Jesse Act of God xiii. 163 ‘Oxford Groupers?’ said Erskine vaguely. ‘Oh yes. They're harmless people, I believe, though rather bright and jolly.’ 1939Times 7 Mar. 15/5 Again, not by any means all of our youth are represented by those who frequent mass meetings, ‘go all groupy’, and discuss with great emotion topics on which, by the nature of things, they can be but very inadequately informed. 1940Graves & Hodge Long Week-end xii. 205 One of the Groupist songs. 1959Chambers's Encycl. VI. 604/1 The organization in Great Britain was incorporated in 1939 as the Oxford Group... Its object is to ‘change lives’ by the power of Christ. Ibid., The Cambridge Group Movement, no longer in existence, was a fellowship of young methodists which in the 1930s adopted many of the principles and methods of the Buchmanite movement in a less extreme form. 1961[see Buchmanism].
e. An air-fleet or division of an air-fleet; spec. one in the Royal Air Force.
1922Times 15 Feb. 14/5 The Officer Commanding Irak Group is directly responsible to the Air Ministry for the command and administration of the Air Force units located in Irak. 1939War Illustr. 29 Dec. 538/2 A Squadron in the R.A.F...is the basic tactical unit, a number of Squadrons forming a Wing, so many Wings a Group, and so to the Command. 1942T. Rattigan Flare Path i. 114 Been a bit of a muck-up at Group. Maudie. What's Group? Dusty. Group headquarters. Where the orders come from. 1959Chambers's Encycl. I. 189/1 The main formations of the R.A.F. are the flight, the squadron, the wing and the group.
f. An ensemble of popular musicians; = pop group.
1958in Conc. Oxf. Dict. Add., Skiffle group. 1964Gramophone Pop. Record Catal. (Artist Section) Dec. 44/1 Barron-Knights, The... Call up the groups. Medley. 1967Melody Maker 27 May 9 Groups who are going to give us action. 1967Listener 20 July 80/1 It is an eye to detail..which keeps the group on its toes.
g. Any of several international committees having common economic interests, as Group of Five, consisting of financial representatives of the five major non-Communist economic powers of Great Britain, the United States, Japan, West Germany, and France; Group of 77 (see quot. 1968); Group of Ten, consisting of ten of the main industrial member nations of the IMF, which have undertaken to lend the Fund money when necessary in order to bolster the international monetary system. Cf. G III.
1963Internat. Financial News Survey (IMF) 11 Oct. XV. 351/1 The following statement was issued on October 2 on behalf of the ‘Group of Ten’ members of the International Monetary Fund. 1964Ann. Reg. 1963 472 A fresh initiative..was taken by the ‘Group of Ten’—the governments which had banded together in a mutual credit arrangement..to supplement the resources of The International Monetary Fund. 1968B. Gosovic in Internat. Conciliation May dlxviii. 14 There are three distinct sets of actors in UNCTAD: the Group of 77, composed of developing countries; the B Group, composed of Western developed states; and the D Group, composed of the socialist countries of Eastern Europe. The Group of 77 was never constituted formally, but the Joint Declaration of the Developing Countries at the 1963 session of the General Assembly can be considered as the Group's official appearance, and the Joint Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Developing Countries made at the conclusion of the Geneva Conference as its first birthday. 1977Economist 26 Nov. 92/1 The Group of 5 is made up of the largest economies (United States, Japan, West Germany, France, Britain). 1983Listener 27 Jan. 5/1 The principle of self-determination, though enshrined in the UN Charter, is subordinated by the Group of 77 (the Third World) and the Communist powers to the spirit of anti-colonialism. 1986Times 20 Jan. 21/1 The Group of Five finance ministers of the biggest industrial market economies..have been meeting at No 11, Downing Street. 1986Group of Ten [see G10 s.v. G III f].
4. a. esp. in scientific classification. Chiefly used as an indefinite term for any classificatory division whatever its relative rank (so, e.g., in Zoology), though in various branches of natural science attempts have been made to appropriate the term to some one particular grade of classification.
In Botany, e.g., Lindley applied the word to a grade intermediate in comprehension between alliance and sub-class; but in a later work he discarded this use.
1826Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. 390, I would..propose the following primary and subordinate divisions of an Order: 1. Suborder; 2. Section..8. Genus; 9. Subgenus. I would further propose that each of these successive groups should have a name always terminating alike. 1826[see axine]. 1859Darwin Orig. Spec. ii. (1873) 47 The forms of life throughout the universe become divided into groups subordinate to groups. 1859Amer. Cycl. III. 282/1 The mining birds compose a very large group, belonging to nearly every order, and having no other common peculiarity. 1892Gardiner Student's Hist. Eng. 5 A group of races sometimes known as the Aryan group.
b. In Stratigraphy: formerly, any of various categories into which rocks were classified and which would now correspond to the following modern geological time units: (i) Period (in some systems also Epoch); (ii) Age; (iii) Era. (iv) In modern use: a stratigraphic unit consisting of two or more formations.
(i)1830H. T. De la Beche Geol. Notes p. xxxv, The superior stratified or fossiliferous rocks are divided into groups. Ibid. p. xxxvi, Group 3. (Supercretaceous)... Group 4. (Cretaceous). 1838C. Lyell Elem. Geol. xiii. 281, I proposed to give short technical names to these four groups [sc. Eocene, Miocene, Older Pliocene, Newer Pliocene], or the periods to which they respectively belonged. 1893Jrnl. Geol. I. 187 De la Beche..carries out the system more completely, calling the first, or superior order, Supercretaceous group, and applying the terms Cretaceous, Oölitic and Red sandstone to three groups into which he divides the second order, and giving the third the name Carboniferous group.
(ii)1883G. K. Gilbert in Nature XXVII. 261 The term..group, which by the..Bologna Congress was made more comprehensive than system, is by Geikie used as the equivalent of stage. 1912A. J. Jukes-Browne Student's Handbk. Stratigr. Geol. (ed. 2) i. 11 Systems are divided into sections or formations... These sections are again divided into stages or groups.., and these again are often divisible into zones.
(iii)1883[see sense (ii)]. 1898Jrnl. Geol. VI. 353 The terms, Group, System, Series, Stage, and the correlative time-divisions, Era, Period, Epoch, Age, are to my mind very satisfactory. 1927Lake & Rastall Text-bk. Geol. (ed. 4) xvi. 299 In this way the rocks of the earth's crust have been divided into four great divisions, which are often known as groups. The groups are subdivided into systems, the systems into series, and the series into stages.
(iv)1933Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. XLIV. 429 Article 2. The following divisions or units of rocks are recognized:..(3) Group, a local or provincial subdivision of a system, based on lithologic features. It is usually less than a standard series and contains two or more formations. 1963Krumbein & Sloss Stratigr. & Sedim. (ed. 2) ii. 33 Two or more successive formations, related by lithology or by position with reference to unconformities, may be assembled as a group.
5. Math.
a. Orig., a set or system of operations so constituted that the product of any number of these operations is always itself a member of the ‘group’. Now more generally defined as: A set of elements, together with a single-valued associative binary operation, which is closed with respect to the operation and contains an inverse for each element and an identity element. (Except for the property of being closed these properties were formerly tacitly assumed.) [The sense is due to E. Galois, who used F. groupe (Bull. d. Sciences math., astron., etc. (1830) XIII. 435).]
1854Cayley Math. Papers (1889) II. 124 A set of symbols 1, α, β,..all of them different, and such that the product of any two of them..or the product of any one of them into itself, belongs to the set, is said to be a group. Note. The idea of a group as applied to permutations or substitutions is due to Galois. 1893Forsyth Theory Functions 610 The Fuchsian groups conserve a line, the axis of x, or a circle, the fundamental circle; the Kleinian groups do not conserve such a line or circle, common to the group. 1907M. Bôcher Introd. Higher Algebra vi. 82 The positive and negative integers with zero form a group if the rule of combination is addition... These same elements, however, do not form a group if the rule of combination is multiplication,..since zero has no reciprocal. 1941Birkhoff & MacLane Surv. Mod. Algebra vi. 130 A group whose operation satisfies the commutative law is called a ‘commutative’ or ‘Abelian’ group. 1958Sykes & Bell tr. Landau & Lifshitz's Quantum Mech. xii. 317 The set of all symmetry transformations for a given body is called its symmetry transformation group (or simply its symmetry group). 1965Patterson & Rutherford Elem. Abstract Algebra ii. 31 Any element of a group S can be expressed in one and only one way in the form a {logicand} x, where a is a fixed element of the group. 1969A. P. Cracknell Crystals ii. 65 All the operations of this type, combinations of a point-group operation and a lattice translation are said to make up a space group, and it is really a space group which is needed to describe the symmetry of a real crystal.
b. group theory, a branch of algebra concerned with the properties of groups and their applications, esp. in mathematical physics (e.g. to the investigation of symmetries in physical systems).
1898Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. (ser. 3: Maths-Physics) I. iv. 29 In the application of group theory to problems of geometry and analysis, simple groups play the fundamental rôle. 1919F. Cajori Hist. Math. (ed. 2) 335 A line-geometry and kinematics are elaborated, partly by the use of group theory, which are carried over to non-Euclidean spaces. 1965J. C. Davis Adv. Physical Chem. iii. 75 The student of quantum mechanics and spectroscopy will find the structure of group theory beautiful and its utility exciting.
6. attrib. and Comb., as group-burial, group-firing, group-formation, group-name, group-photograph, group-portrait, group-system, group-table; Group Areas Act (see quots.); group captain, a rank in the Royal Air Force equivalent to colonel in the army; group dialect, distinctive language used by members of a group sharing the same occupation or interests; so group language; group-flashing, the repeated emission of a set group or pattern of flashes by a lighthouse; also attrib.; group genitive (see quot. 1957); group language (see group dialect above); group (life) assurance or insurance (see quot. 1927); group-marriage, a primitive form of familial relationship hypothesized by some anthropologists in which certain groups within a tribe were considered husbands and wives; also transf.; group-order Naut. (see quot.); group-person, a person belonging to or drawn from a special set of people; group practice, a medical practice in which several doctors are associated; group-rate, a rate of railway fare applicable to each one of a group of stations; group-spring, U.S., a car-spring, composed of several spiral springs in a nest; group velocity, the speed at which the energy of a wave or wave-group travels: so called because if the sinusoidal components of a wave-group do not differ greatly in frequency, the group-velocity is the speed at which the group as a whole travels; group-verb (see quots.); group-wise adv., (performed) by groups; group-word (see quot.); group work (see quots.).
1952L. Marquard Peoples & Policies S. Afr. vii. 152 In 1950 the *Group Areas Act was passed empowering the Government to declare any area a group area for Coloured, European, African, or Asian. 1957Encycl. Brit. XXII. 426/2 The Group Areas act of 1950 was one of a series of acts which sought to implement Smuts's Natives Land act of 1913, which checked the penetration of natives into European areas and vice versa.
1920H. Dougharty Pension, Endowment, Life Assurance xi. 52 The following features of *Group Assurance are common to practically all Group Policies—1. The insurance is effected by the employer on the lives of his employees.
1932Times 12 Feb. 11/1 The significance of this unique *group-burial must remain a mystery.
1920*Group captain [see air officer s.v. air n.1 B. III. 3]. 1922Man. Seamanship I. i. 11 Marks of Rank... R.A.F... Group Captain. R.N... Captain. 1923Daily Mail 13 Feb. 9 Group-captain in the Air Force.
1934Priebsch & Collinson German Lang. ii. v. 260 We propose to use the term ‘*group dialects’ as the equivalents of the German Sondersprachen and French Langues spéciales. The word contrasts with ‘regional dialects’. 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. viii. 152 ‘Pax’ is group dialect not regional dialect.
1896Daily News 6 Aug. 7/2 The garrison *group-firing competition at a moving target proceeded in the afternoon.
1891A. G. Findlay Lighthouses of World Add. facing p. 32, Its [sc. electric light's] range, definition, and, where a distinctive character is employed as *Group-Flashing, its unmistakable superiority to all other modes of Illumination, pronounce its excellence and pre-eminence. 1911Encycl. Brit. XVI. 629/1 The 12 lens panels are arranged in groups of two, thus producing a group flashing light. 1958R. de Kerchove Internat. Maritime Dict. (ed. 2) 310/2 Group flashing light, a light showing at regular intervals a group of two or more flashes.
1894O. Jespersen Progress in Lang. viii. 306 It will not be easy to lay down fully definite and comprehensive rules for determining in which cases the *group genitive is allowable and in which the s has to be affixed to each member. 1927Rev. Eng. Studies Oct. 438 There are other practical problems of syntax... One might instance the Split Infinitive, and the modern development of the group genitive. 1957R. W. Zandvoort Handbk. Eng. Gram. ii. 91 The genitive-suffix is always added to the last element of a word-group: the Prince of Wales's birthday, Miss Mansfield's wedding. This is known as the group-genitive.
1934Priebsch & Collinson German Lang. ii. v. 262 Like all *group languages student slang has a number of different designations for the people and things most familiar in student life. 1964C. Barber Present-Day Eng. iii. 68 The importance of a special group-language in promoting feelings of cohesion can easily be seen.
1913Craftsman Sept. 652/1 A new and progressive form of life insurance has recently been developed, which is of interest to every employer of labor and every employee. ‘*Group insurance’ it is called, and by its means an employer is able to insure the lives of those who work for him at a much less cost than would be possible if each employee were to become individually insured. 1928Daily Mail 25 July 19/5 Group Insurance came into existence only seventeen years ago and it took seven years for all companies to accumulate as much Group Life Assurance as this one contract. 1964G. L. Cohen What's Wrong with Hospitals? v. 103 Nor do large firms relish the idea of highly paid men frittering hours away: hence the marked spread of professional and industrial group insurance.
1920H. Dougharty Pension, Endowment, Life Assurance xi. 51 *Group Life Assurance, introduced by an American Life Office some four years ago, is a non-contributory system of Staff Life Assurance. 1927B. C. Hoskins Insurance Lex. 105 Group Life Assurance.—Under this contract groups or numbers of lives are assured instead of individuals.
1880*Group marriage [see marriage 1 d]. 1899A. H. Keane Man Past & Present v. 153 Here it is necessary to distinguish carefully between class-marriages and the so-called ‘communal’ or ‘group’ marriages. 1906Westm. Gaz. 13 Aug. 10/1 Dr. J. W. Gregory, in his ‘Dead Heart of Australia’..includes them [sc. the Aborigines] in the same race-group as ourselves..and reminds us that their system of ‘group marriage’ was prevalent in Britain at the time of Julius Cæsar's invasion. 1921E. Westermarck Hist. Human Marriage (ed. 5) I. vii. 268 Even if it were worth while inventing such a society in the interest of the cherished institution of group marriage, it would be impossible to find mothers who were equally ignorant of their chldren as the children were of their mothers. Ibid. III. xxxi. 260 Nor can the hypothesis that it [sc. the classificatory system] is an indication of group-marriage or sexual communism be accepted as even probably correct. 1937R. H. Lowie Hist. Ethnol. Theory viii. 88 Morgan had suggested a stage of group-marriage. 1957Auden & Kallman Magic Flute 60 Whether they live in air-borne nylon cubes, Practise group-marriage or are fed through tubes.
1902Folk-Lore XIII. 386 It appears to me that *group-names may, originally, have been imposed from without. 1935Discovery Sept. 253/1 Arya has been used..as a religious group-name, to distinguish the worshippers of the gods of the Brahmans from the worshippers of certain other Indian deities. 1968Times 13 Mar. 11/5 Surnames are group names which subdivide the Johns and Jameses into..Smiths,..&c.
1882Nares Seamanship (ed. 6) 114 A fleet is said to be in *group order when the ships composing each group are so placed as to be able at once to assume group formation in whatever manner the fleet may be disposed, with the ships in line.
1898Maitland Township & Boro. 15 Oxford and Cambridge are peopled by ‘*group-persons’.
1918W. Owen Let. c 9 June (1967) 558 Preserve me from..plush chairs, *group-photographs, flowers under glass-shades. 1935J. Joyce Let. 18 Jan. (1966) III. 342 Send me a group photograph like the last lovely one we had taken. 1937H. Read Art & Society iv. 171 There had grown up in Holland..a custom of commissioning group-portraits—just as we still commission group-photographs of..wedding parties—and Rembrandt was not above undertaking such a commission.
1942Lancet 19 Sept. 345/1 *Group practice was defined here as referring to general practitioner practice only. 1947Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 6 Dec. 904/1 (heading) Medical group practice in the United States. 1954S. Taylor Good General Practice iv. 90 It is useful to begin by testing the hypothesis that group practice is inherently better than individual practice. Ibid. 93 True group practice is comparatively rare. 1958New Statesman 18 Oct. 530/2 The development of health centres and group practice has been much too slow, and the education of general practitioners barely touches on..social medicine and thus offers no training for over two-thirds of their future work. 1961Brit. Med. Dict. 1152/1 Group practice, the co-operation of several medical practitioners, usually in partnership, for the diagnosis of and treatment of patients. Frequently, one partner specializes in medicine, another in surgery, etc. 1968Guardian 6 May 7/2 There are strong incentives to form group practices.
1888Act 51 & 52 Vict. c. 25 §29 Provided that the distances shall not be unreasonable, and that the *group rates charged and the places grouped together shall not be such as to create an undue preference.
1897Cavalry Tactics xii. 62 The cossack post, or *group system, consists in placing small detached posts, of a double or single vedette, with reliefs, commanded by a n.-c. officer, on all avenues of approach from the enemy.
1866Odling Anim. Chem. 35 As shown in the *group-tables to which I have already adverted.
1887Proc. Inst. Mech. Engin. Aug. 426 Calculate out the result from the law that the *group-velocity is half the wave-velocity—the velocity of a group of waves at sea is half the velocity of the individual waves. 1948Mott & Sneddon Wave Mech. & its Applications i. 24 The group and wave velocities are equal only if the wave velocity is independent of frequency (as for light in a vacuum).
1892H. Sweet New Eng. Gram. I. 138 We may regard pass-by and run-across in such constructions as *group-verbs, logically equivalent to such simple transitive verbs as pass and cross in he passed the house, he crossed the road. 1924H. E. Palmer Gram. Spoken Eng. ii. 169 Some adverbs are so intimately associated with verbs that such combinations may be considered as group-verbs. 1963F. T. Visser Hist. Syntax I. iv. 407 Prepositional object after such group-verbs as break in upon, look out for.
1901E. A. Ross Social Control 29 The fittest to survive when the competition is man-wise, may be eliminated when the competition is *group-wise.
1953C. E. Bazell Linguistic Form vi. 73 (Type queen of France's son). This abnormality led to the whole group (e.g. queen of France) being taken as a word, albeit of a special kind (‘*group-word’).
1941J. S. Huxley Uniqueness of Man xi. 233 We may distinguish such [joint] work from true *group work, using the term group in the sense of a body of people pooling their different knowledges and skills to cope with quantitatively differentiated problems. 1958Times 6 Sept. 10/2 Another attractive group-work is the huge ‘Wise Man’ (Hornsey High School). 1959Gloss. Terms Work Study (B.S.I.) 24 Group work, work done by a number of workers in close association, each worker contributing towards a completed unit of production. 1970New Society 5 Mar. 401/1 Social group work is a tool to solve external problems and is based on activity, discussion and again action.
b. Social Sciences. In many Combs. in which group means ‘a group of people, esp. a social group or community’, as group-action, group-analysis, group-attitude, group-behaviour, group-centred adj., group-characteristic, group-conflict, group-consciousness, group-counselling, group-counsellor, group-discussion, group dynamics, group-experience, group-feeling, group-interest, group-life, group-living, group-loyalty, group-mate, group-membership, group-memory, group-mentality, group-migration, group-mind, group-norm, group-organization, group-person, group-personality, group psychiatry, group-psychologist, group psychology, group psychotherapy, group-sentiment, group-solidarity, group spirit, group status, group survival, group theory, group therapy, group-think, group-thinking, group-type, group-will.
1931Times Lit. Suppl. 20 Aug. 635/1 The work of Mr. Edmund Selous on *group-action in bird flocks recently reviewed by us. 1943Mind LII. 228 The term ‘I’ could be said to be a sociological term, because it designates a class of group-actions.
1927D. H. Lawrence Let. 3 Aug. (1932) 687, I must come and be present at your *group-analysis work one day. 1943H. Read Educ. through Art vi. 198 Therefore, for the Freudian method of individual analysis, Dr. Burrow substitutes a method of group analysis, by which he does not mean an analysis of the group, but a ‘phyletic principle of observation’, that is to say, group activities which involve the group's analysis of any one of its component individuals.
1937C. M. Arensberg Irish Countryman 116 For we are dealing..with *group-attitudes reciprocally held.
1920E. D. Martin Behavior of Crowds iv. 79 We would sit in chapel and hear a wrathful president denounce our *group behavior as ‘boorishness and hoodlumism’. 1927G. A. de Laguna Speech xiv. 261 The adaptation of group-behaviour to the situation. 1959Times Lit. Suppl. 27 Mar. 181/2 It is to cover..biological reproduction, dynamic psychology, group-behaviour patterns, and so on.
1951Jrnl. Abnormal & Soc. Psychol. XLVI. 521/1 This study is concerned with the effects of two contrasting group-leadership techniques—*group-centered..and leader-centered. 1958W. J. H. Sprott Human Groups ix. 144 ‘Group-centred’ ones [sc. groups], in which interaction was encouraged.
1944Koestler in Horizon Mar. 162 Historically, it is..the ‘aspiration to independent thinking’ which provides the only valid *group-characteristic of the intelligentsia.
1954H. Gibbs Background to Bitterness 8 Nevertheless, the country contains many who fear that future *group-conflicts or racial conflict may occur within the next decade.
1915A. Huxley Let. Dec. (1969) 87 All the men who are running the Palatine, who are infused with the Palatinate *group-consciousness, which is a good group-consciousness, are good men. 1951R. Firth Elem. Social Organiz. iii. 115 In their own social and ceremonial life they display a strong group consciousness. 1957H. Read Tenth Muse xxxi. 277 This quality may sometimes be due to some kind of collective intuition—the working of several minds to a common conception; the spontaneous overflow of a group consciousness.
1950Hahn & MacLean Gen. Clin. Counseling i. 11 To talk of ‘*group counseling’ and to imply that it is similar in structure and outcomes to one-to-one clinical counseling is as silly as talking about ‘group courtship’. 1959News Chron. 4 Dec. 7/5 Describing the experiment, known as ‘group counselling’, as ‘the most important thing to happen in penology for a very long time’, the report stresses that the discussions were spontaneous and wide. 1961‘C. H. Rolph’ Common Sense about Crime ix. 144 In prisons and Borstals what is now called Group Counselling is now being developed... The technique in its modern form..began at San Quentin prison in California.
Ibid. 145 Selected members of the..staff at San Quentin..were doing the work of *group counsellors.
1912C. H. Cooley Social Organiz. (ed. 2) iii. 24 As regards play, I might..multiply illustrations of the universality and spontaneity of the *group discussion and coöperation to which it gives rise. 1963A. Heron Towards Quaker View of Sex v. 44 They may..feel it necessary to initiate group discussion on sexual matters.
1953A. K. C. Ottaway Educ. & Society 13 *Group dynamics is an excellent example of a subject which overlaps with sociology and psychology. 1959G. D. Mitchell Sociol. i. 23 This modern micro-sociological development, often called group dynamics.
1941Mind L. 395 The members participating in a family meal round the same table share, each in his own way, in the *group-experience of eating together.
1945A. L. Rowse Eng. Spirit 46 Patriotism is a form of *group-feeling.
1904*Group-interest [see communitary a.]. 1931A. L. Rowse Politics & Younger Generation 232 The basic factors in society are the impersonal blocs of group-interest.
1902Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. VIII. ii. 189 In the case of the dyad and triad configurations, we had to do with that inner *group-life, with all its differences, syntheses, and antitheses. 1913J. N. Figgis Churches in Mod. State 226 Facts so tremendous as the complex group-life which is to most of us more than the State. 1941Mind L. 396 The group-life of the rural parish.
1951Essays in Criticism I. 1 The literary problem must not be divorced from the problems of *group-living, in the widest sense, that lie behind it.
1958Hayward & Harari tr. Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago i. 18 It is always a sign of mediocrity in people when they herd together, whether their *group loyalty is to Solovyev or to Kant or Marx.
1927Mod. Philol. XXV. 213 Successive actions of his *group-mates (parents, etc.)..‘condition’ him to the social habits. 1949M. Mead Male & Female x. 205 He will very likely live longer than his more active group-mates.
1950T. H. Marshall Citizenship & Social Class 105 My consciousness of age..does not take the form of a feeling of *group-membership.
1923J. S. Huxley Ess. Biologist i. 52 What may be called the ‘*group-memory’—the power of storing and rendering knowledge available. 1965Listener 30 Sept. 491/1 Group memory..is no more than the transmittal to many people of the memory of one man or a few men, repeated many times over.
1920B. Russell Pract. & Theory Bolshevism i. i. 19 The *group-mentality that Communism requires.
1960P. H. Reaney Orig. Eng. Place-Names 103 This evidence of somewhat extensive *group migration is a matter of some importance to the historian and student of dialect.
a1899D. G. Brinton Basis of Social Relations (1902) i. ii. 28 The actual existence of the *group-mind can no more be denied than the constant inter-relation between it and the individual mind. 1960Times Lit. Suppl. 20 May 323/4 We know that men may lose their individual identities..by music and rhetoric, and that (as the careers of Dr. Goebbels and Senator McCarthy have shown) this state of group-mind can be stretched out over long periods.
1936M. Sherif Psychol. Soc. Norms vi. 105 If the leader changes his norm after the *group norm is settled he may cease thereupon to be followed. 1958R. K. Merton Soc. Theory 317 Departures from the strict definitions of group-norms.
1913L. T. Hobhouse Development & Purpose x. 186 *Group-organisation becomes a system of peace and, on the whole, co-operation. 1940H. Read Annals of Innocence & Experience iii. 210 Such a society..would give the individual the greatest degree of liberty consistent with a group organization.
1915E. Barker Polit. Thought in England 175 Permanent groups are themselves persons, *group-persons, with a group-will of their own.
1934― tr. Gierke's Natural Law & Theory of Soc. I. iii. i. 81 In his [sc. Hobbes's] theory of corporations, as in his theory of the State, the central conception is that of the unity of *group-personality. 1942L. B. Namier Conflicts 91 As members of a group-personality most people enjoy greater freedom from moral scruples and inhibitions.
1944Horizon Jan. 79 Dr. Maxwell Jones, who is experimenting in *group-psychiatry. 1969E. McGirr Entry of Death vi. 114 An interest in group psychiatry.
1933H. G. Wells Shape of Things to Come iii. §5. 291 The new economists on the one hand and the *group psychologists on the other.
1920W. McDougall Group Mind 8 *Group Psychology has, first, to establish the general principles of group life. 1949Koestler Insight & Outlook xiii. 194 Its demonstrable connections with the phenomena of projection,..group psychology, and so on.
1938P. Schilder Psychotherapy x. 197, I shall try here to give a detailed description of a method of *group psychotherapy which I have employed..in the out-patient department of Bellevue Hospital. 1948Sci. News VIII. 106 Group psychotherapy..implies that a group of patients is treated together rather than individually. 1970New Society 5 Mar. 401/1 Group psychotherapy is based on ‘‘free floating discussion’, the equivalent in the group of ‘free association’ in the one-to-one psycho-analytic process’.
1935Huxley & Haddon We Europeans i. 12 For the moment we will refer to the sentiment which animates tribal and national units alike, by the non⁓committal phrase ‘*group sentiment’.
1927G. A. de Laguna Speech xviii. 318 The importance of the celebration of tribal deeds in fostering *group-solidarity. 1951M. McLuhan Mech. Bride 10/1 A very able person may often choose to freeze or anesthetize large areas of his mind and experience for the sake of..the pleasures of group solidarity.
1920W. McDougall Group Mind 63 The *group spirit, the idea of the group with the sentiment of devotion to the group developed in the minds of all its members.
1934R. Benedict Patterns of Culture (1935) iv. 103 It [sc. initiation] makes the children valuable by giving them *group status.
1946Mind LV. 45 It is quite possible that the community will develop a philosophical view that serves the end of *group survival. For example, this is what appears to be happening very rapidly in South Africa among the Afrikaans-speaking community (‘the Dutch’).
1916C. C. J. Webb (title) *Group theories of religion and the individual.
1943S. R. Slavson (title) An introduction to *group therapy. 1948Sci. News VIII. 107 The first recorded use of group therapy was the experiment of Dr. J. H. Pratt in Boston [in 1905]. 1957A. Huxley Let. 18 Nov. (1969) 830 Group therapy..I personally wd try, if I got into a state of psychological distress. 1970Daily Tel. 18 May 4/8 Group therapy is to be tried as a means of curbing bad driving in New York State under a three-year experimental plan to be started on June 1.
1959Sunday Times 22 Nov. 9/6 The *group-think that is one of Chelsea's strongest assets, is also a source of weakness. 1969D. E. Westlake Up your Banners (1970) xxxvii. 266 If ever I'd seen a document that was the result of group-think, that was it.
1923J. MacCurdy Probl. Dynamic Psychol. xxi. 324 This rationalization tendency points to the fact that we dislike the thought of not forming our own opinions and that there is some antagonism between individual, intellectual activity and acceptance of ‘*group thinking’. 1933‘R. West’ St. Augustine i. 18 This led inevitably to comic fatuities of the sort that Gibbon loved to mock, and to the depreciation of thought by the hasty and facile processes inevitable in group-thinking.
1903E. A. Ross in Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. VIII. 762 The hundred interlacing groups into which men combine, are the proper subject of study. This..conception..excuses us from showing..how a *group-type or a group-will arises.
1939V. A. Demant Religious Prospect iii. 66 Politics rapidly loses its character as the corporate attempt to embody a Natural Law and becomes increasingly a conflict of bare *group-wills.
Senses 3 f, g in Dict. become 3 g, h. Add: [c indigo][3.] f.[/c] An association of commercial companies in which the holding company has control of a number of subsidiaries; a conglomerate. Commonly (preceded by a proper name) denoting the association.
1930Economist 25 Oct. 775/1 The ‘group’ has a majority of the directors of both the Roan Antelope and the Rhodesian Selection Trust. 1937[see account n. 2 e]. 1960News Chron. 10 Jan. 3/7 The Heinemann group..published an expurgated version of ‘Lady Chatterley’..in hard cover in this country. 1975Times 13 May 21/1 The chairman says that..all the group's companies continue to operate profitably. 1981Times 20 May 20/6 Shares of entertainments group Pleasurama rose 4p to 290p yesterday.
Add:[3.] h. Group of Seven, an association of the seven major industrialized nations (excluding the former Soviet Union); abbrev. G7 (G III. f).
1977Economist 26 Nov. 92/1 The Group of 5 is made up of the largest economies (United States, Japan, West Germany, France, Britain). But by this year's London summit the top economies' club had become the Group of 7. 1986Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 30 Sept. 23/2 Failure of the Group of Seven industrialised nations to agree on exchange and interest rate policies left foreign exchange markets in limbo yesterday. 1992Harper's Mag. Mar. 59/3 The Soviet prime minister..tried to push the national panic button when Gorbachev came away empty-handed from his London meeting with the leaders of the Group of Seven.
▸ Group of Eight n. any of various associations of eight nations or trading blocs; (now) spec. an association formed in 1994 comprising the Group of Seven nations (France, the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Canada; see sense Additions) and Russia.
1977Washington Post (Nexis) 31 May a1 A wide-ranging package of economic measures by the ‘Group of Eight’ delegations representing the world's main industrial nations. 1977Newsweek (Nexis) 13 June 78 The Group of Eight (the U.S., Japan, Australia, Canada, the Common Market, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain) also accepted the notion of creating a $1 billion pool. 1987Facts on File 11 Dec. 911/3 Eight Latin American presidents gathered in Acapulco... Latin America's foreign debt..was the focus of the summit of the so-called Group of Eight. 1991Independent 17 July 1 US and Japanese officials were last night engaged in hard bargaining to ensure that detailed follow-up talks on help for Soviet economic reforms should not only be confined to the G7, which would intensify pressure to create a Group of Eight. 1999Times (Nexis) 30 Aug. In June, Russia's partners in the Group of Eight decided the threat was serious enough to make it a priority for Western aid.
▪ II. group, v.|gruːp|
[f. the n. Cf. F. grouper.]
1. a. trans. To make a group of, to form into a group; to place in a group with (something). Also to group together.
Johnson 1755 gives the sense ‘to put into a croud, to huddle together’. This meaning, if it existed, is now obs.; cf. group n. 2.
1754Foote Knights Pref., Nor can I claim any other merit than grouping them together. a1785W. Whitehead On the Improvements at Nuneham 29 Who thinn'd, and who group'd, and who scatter'd those trees. 1810Scott Lady of L. i. xii, Fox-glove and night-shade, side by side, Grouped their dark hues with every stain, The weather-beaten rocks retain. 1853Kingsley Hypatia xxii. 280 Peitho and the Graces retired a few steps, and grouped themselves with the Cyclops. 1855Bain Senses & Int. iii. ii. §23 (1864) 500 We thus group in the mind a number of things not lying together in nature. 1894J. T. Fowler Adamnan Introd. 38 Scattered huts or cells grouped around a church or oratory.
b. intr. for refl. To form a group or part of a group; to gather in a group or groups.
1801Southey Thalaba iii. xxi, Home-birds, grouping at Oneiza's call. 1823H. Ravelin Lucubrations 349 The blazing watch fire, throwing its red glare upon the swarthy figures which danced or grouped in indolence around it. 189719th Cent. Aug. 218 Lord Tennyson when among us grouped with these.
2. a. trans. To dispose (colours, figures, etc.) with due regard to their mutual relations and subordination so as to form a harmonious whole. Also with about, together.
1718Prior Solomon Pref., The difficulty lies in drawing and disposing, or (as the painters term it) in grouping such a multitude of different objects. 1753Hogarth Anal. Beauty 1 Almost every figure in them (how oddly soever they may seem to be group'd together). 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) IV. 116 Nature..groupes her pictures. 1829Scott Let. to Earl Elgin 20 Jan. in Lockhart, Six figures will form too many for a sculptor to group to advantage. 1848Dickens Dombey xxxi, Mrs. Miff, and Mr. Sownds the Beadle, group the party in their proper places at the altar rails. 1871L. Stephen Playgr. Europe iii. (1894) 70 The architecture of nature displays..such exquisite powers of grouping the various elements of beauty. 1889Gunter That Frenchman xvi, These hackmen..are grouped about in picturesque attitudes.
b. intr. for refl.
1820W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. XCIII. 64 Massinger is so much more modern than the other writers noticed in this lecture, that they do not groupe well together. 1871Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) IV. xviii. 211 The proud polygonal keep of the fortress still groups well with the soaring towers.
3. a. trans. To arrange in groups with reference to the presence of some common feature or property; to classify.
1862H. Spencer First Princ. ii. i. §37 (1875) 131 Science concerns itself with the co-existences and sequences among phenomena; grouping these at first into generalizations of a low order [etc.]. 1869M. Somerville Molec. Sci. i. i. 15 However numerous the crystalline forms assumed by substances..may be, they are all capable of being grouped into geometrical systems. 1875Manning Mission H. Ghost xiii. 368 Having defined its doctrines, it assembles them and groups them together.
b. Med. To assign to a particular blood group; to determine the blood group of.
1936Brit. Med. Jrnl. 28 Mar. 651/2 The patient's blood should in any case be grouped, so that an immediate transfusion may be given later if necessary. 1968Passmore & Robson Compan. Med. Stud. I. xxvi. 19/2 With improved laboratory techniques and increased care in grouping and cross matching the blood of both patient and donor, reactions are now uncommon.
4. intr. Of shots from a fire-arm: to cluster about a point on the target; to form a compact shot group. Also, of a fire-arm or the firer: to fire shots which do this (trans. and intr.).
1900W. W. Greener Sharpshooting v. 84 Having learned so to shoot that all shots group closely, proceed by altering the sights to get the groups centrally placed upon the bull's-eye. 1911Encycl. Brit. XXVI. 419/2 The use of the bull's-eye to-day is to teach the soldier to shoot uniformly, that is, to ‘group’ his shots closely. 1913A. G. Fulton Notes on Rifle Shooting 28 It is often difficult to account for some beginners grouping right away and others proving almost hopeless. 1958J. A. Barlow Elem. Rifle Shooting (ed. 5) i. 2 The one and only essential in any rifle for competition purposes is that it should group within a certain predetermined maximum. |