adhere
Formsadheres, adhering, adhered
- 1To remain attached or devoted to a person, belief, or principle.
Devout followers adhere to the teachings handed down through generations.
The founders adhered firmly to the ideals on which the movement was built.
Note
Here the sticking is loyalty rather than glue, a figurative step from the literal "stick fast" sense. One adheres to a creed, a cause or a master's canons. The object need not be admirable: Alexander Hamilton in 1775 accused an opponent of adhering "to your usual fallacy." Although the verb is intransitive, adhere to takes the passive easily, as in a tight timeline was adhered to.
- 2To stick fast to a surface, as a glue-like substance does, becoming joined or united with it.
Barnacles adhere to the hulls of ships left in the water for months.
The tape adhered to the cardboard and left no residue when peeled away.
Note
The literal sense the others grow from. It comes from Latin adhaerēre, built from ad "to" and haerēre "to stick," by way of Middle English adheren. The verb takes no direct object, and what it sticks to follows to: wax adheres to a finger. In Anna Botsford Comstock's How to Keep Bees (1905), the contents of a diseased larva adhere to a pin "in a stringy mass." Its plainer partners are stick, cling and cleave.
- 3To act in accordance with a rule, plan, or standard; to comply consistently and without deviation.
All laboratory staff adhere to strict handling procedures for hazardous materials.
The final report adhered closely to the format the editors had agreed upon.
Similarcomply, conform, stick, follow
Oppositedeviate, violate, flout, disregard
Note
Conformity rather than obedience: the subject need not be keeping any rule, only matching a pattern. David Browne's 2017 Rolling Stone obituary of Hugh Hefner says his companions "all adhered to the same mold." It means they fit one type, not that they followed instructions. Where the loyalty sense implies devotion, this one simply describes agreement with a standard.
- 4In Scots law, to affirm or uphold a lower court's judgment on appeal rather than overturn it.
On appeal, the court may adhere to the interlocutor pronounced below.
The Inner House adhered to the Lord Ordinary's decision and refused the reclaiming motion.
Note
A term of art in Scots law for an appeal court that lets the decision below stand. The court adheres to the interlocutor, the formal order under review, rather than recalling or varying it, and that wording records the outcome. The construction with to survives from the loyalty sense: the court stands by what was decided.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English adheren, from Latin adhaerēre (adhaesum), a combination of ad ("to") and haerēre ("to stick"). Compare French adhérer.