c1308 Sat. People Kildare 18 in Early Eng. Poems & Lives Saints (1862) 153 Þis uers is imakid wel Of consonans and wowel.

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement Introd. 20 Consonantes written for kepying of trewe orthographie, and levyng of them unsounded in pronunciation.

1589 G. Puttenham Arte Eng. Poesie ii. xii. 88 To prolong the sillable which is written with double consonants.

c1620 A. Hume Of Orthogr. Britan Tongue (1870) i. iv. §1 A consonant is a letter symbolizing a sound articulat that is broaken with the tuiches of the mouth.

1727 W. Mather Young Man's Compan. (ed. 13) 10 The two Consonants that may begin Words, are Thirty in Number..As in Bl, Br, Ch..Gn, Gr, Kn..Th, Tw, Wh, Wr.

1823 B. Brodie Crystallogr. 103 The vowels A E I O, are used to designate the solid angles; some of the consonants, B C D F G H, to designate the primary edges.

1869 A. J. Ellis On Early Eng. Pronunc. I. i. iii. 184 According to the present usages of English speech Y and W are consonants when preceding a vowel as in ye, woe.

1871 I. Pitman Man. Phonogr. (ed. 12) 46 The consonants of a word must be written [in shorthand] without lifting the pen.

1603 H. Crosse Vertues Common-wealth sig. A2^v I haue scattered here and there some iarring notes and harsh consonants, vntunable to a modest eare.

1751 S. Johnson Rambler No. 88. ⁋5 The difference of harmony arising principally from the collocation of vowels and consonants.

1871 H. J. Roby Gram. Latin Lang. I. §1 Interruption [of the breath] by complete contact, or compression by approximation of certain parts of the organs, or vibration of the tongue or uvula, produces consonants.

1877 H. Sweet Handbk. Phonetics §99 A consonant is the result of audible friction, squeezing or stopping of the breath in some part of the mouth (or occasionally of the throat)..Consonants can..be breathed as well as voiced, the mouth configuration alone being enough to produce a distinct sound without the help of voice.

1607 T. Walkington Optick Glasse Pref. Like the foole, a Consonant when hee should be a Mute.

1483 W. Caxton tr. J. de Voragine Golden Legende 38/4 Iubal..was the fynder of musyke that is to saye of consonantes of acorde.

1694 W. Holder Treat. Harmony vi. 148 As we Naturally by the Judgment of our Ear, own, and rest in the Octave, as the chief Consonant.

1712 R. Steele Spectator No. 334. ⁋4 Those Numbers which produc'd Sounds that were Consonants.

1489 W. Caxton tr. C. de Pisan Bk. Fayttes of Armes iv. xi. 260 Thy raysons ben consonaunte.

?1550 J. Bale Apol. agaynste Papyst 55 (R.) A confourme and consonant ordre.

1563 2nd Tome Homelyes Rebellion i, in J. Griffiths Two Bks. Homilies (1859) ii. 561 With one consonant heart and voice.

1611 J. Speed Hist. Great Brit. vi. x. 208/2 His life and death nothing at all consonant or agreeable.

a1492 W. Caxton tr. Vitas Patrum (1495) i. lxi. f. cxiii/2 The deuyll seenge that his contrycyon was not consonaunt to his wordes.

1535 Act 27 Hen. VIII c. 26 §1 A speche nothing like ne consonant to the natural mother tonge vsed within this realme.

1628 E. Coke 1st Pt. Inst. Lawes Eng. Pref. The opinion is consonant to law.

1664 H. More Apol. in Modest Enq. Myst. Iniquity 500 Divine Truth will be found every-where consonant to itself.

1709 T. Hearne Remarks & Coll. (1886) II. 327 The Doctrine of them is certainly consonant to our articles and Homilies.

1865 G. Grote Plato I. iv. 146 This seems more consonant to the language of Diogenes Laertius.

a1575 N. Harpsfield Treat. Divorce Henry VIII (1878) (modernized text) 236 If the marriage..were not consonant with the laws.

1597 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie v. lxvii. 180 That wherewith the writings of all antiquitie are consonant.

1678 A. Marvell Acct. Growth Popery in Wks. I. 574 Like the harmony of the spheres, so consonant with themselves, although we cannot hear the musick.

1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones I. i. viii. 45 She..first sounded their Inclinations, with which her Sentiments were always strictly consonant . View more context for this quotation

1857 W. E. Gladstone in Q. Rev. July 268 It is entirely consonant with the doctrine of St. Paul.

1861 J. Tulloch Eng. Puritanism iii. 377 It will be more..consonant with our aim to endeavour to characterise, etc.

1483 W. Caxton tr. J. de Voragine Golden Legende 180/3 The chylde..gaue his cryes consonaunte unto his moder.

1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica 251 Full of yeares..according to the Etymology of Festus, and consonant unto the History. View more context for this quotation

1744 J. Harris Three Treat. iii. ii. 197 Hear him, consonant to this, in another Place asserting, that a Rational Adversity was better than an Irrational Prosperity.

?1521 A. Barclay Bk. Codrus & Mynalcas sig. Avj^v It..is to one plesant To here good reason, and balade consonant.

a1806 H. K. White Remains (1807) II. 246 An euphonious melody, and consonant cadence.

1871 A. C. Swinburne To W. Whitman in Songs before Sunrise 19 With consonant ardors of chords That pierce men's souls as with swords.

1609 J. Dowland tr. A. Ornithoparchus Micrologus 78 Out of the mean inequalitie..doe proceed consonant Sounds.

1761 F. H. E. Stiles in Philos. Trans. 1760 (Royal Soc.) 51 705 A consonant system..whose extreme or comprehending sounds were consonant.

1860 J. Goss Harmony iv. 9 A Chord..is named a Concord when all the notes form consonant intervals to each other.

1860 J. Goss Harmony iv. 9 The consonant intervals, or Consonances, are the major and minor 3d, perfect 4th and 5th, major and minor 6th, perfect 8ve, and unison.

1884 Bosanquet in Encycl. Brit. XVII. 106/1 [article Music] Other consonant intervals.