consist

Pluralconsists

Formsconsists, consisting, consisted

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A lineup or sequence of railroad cars, with or without a locomotive, that travel together as one unit.

   The yardmaster reassembled the consist after two cars were set out for repair.

   Engineers reviewed the consist to confirm the locomotive's position at the head end.

   Note

   Railroad jargon made by turning the verb into a noun: a consist is literally what a train consists of. It names the makeup of the train, meaning which cars run in what order, rather than the train as a running service. That is why people speak of a train's consist. A consist can list a baggage car, four passenger cars and a diner, and it still counts as one whether or not a locomotive is attached.

2. 2
   verbarchaicintransitive

   To exist, or to be compatible with another thing.

   Her gentle manner did not consist with the harsh rumors about her.

   All things do not consist by Christ today, and all the way back to Adam all things have not consisted by Christ.

   2010, Michael O'Buck, Eternal Life: A Question of Honor

   Note

   Compatibility is the part of this archaic verb that lasted longest, and it takes with. Pope's Iliad grants characters qualities that "could consist… with tender frailties", and The Questions Concerning Liberty, Necessity and Chance (1841) lets necessity "consist with liberty." The Latin consistō meant "agree with" as well as "exist", the root behind the old copula. A religious phrasing, consist by Christ, appears in Michael O'Buck's Eternal Life (2010).

3. 3
   verbobsolete

   To exist; to have being.

   Why doe they cover with so many lets, one over another, those parts where chiefly consisteth [translating loge] our pleasure and theirs?

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes

   Note

   A linking verb inherited from Latin consistō, whose senses ran from "stand together" to simply "exist." Florio's 1603 Montaigne speaks of the parts "where chiefly consisteth our pleasure," using it for French loge, "lodges." The District School Journal of New York still writes in 1846 that a district "shall consist the counties." Because the use is obsolete, it now looks like a slip, so keep it for deliberate period style.

Showing meanings only. Show all 3