merges

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of merge.

   The highway merges into a single lane just before the bridge.

   Each tributary merges into the main channel as it nears the sea.

   Note

   The verb form works with or without an object. Without one, a road, a river or a color merges into something larger or gradually blends into it. With one, someone merges two things into a whole. Into is the usual partner either way. The same spelling also serves as the plural noun, so the merges in a list of changes are events, not actions in progress.

   The department merges its two offices next spring.

   At dusk the blue of the sky merges into gray.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of merge.

   The release notes listed dozens of merges from the past two weeks.

   Frequent merges into the main branch kept the codebase up to date.

   Note

   Counting turns the act into a unit. Each one is a single joining together of sources, which is why the word turns up in tallies of work, as in dozens of merges or frequent merges into the main branch. Version control and data processing use it most. In Minimalist syntax the count is more abstract: each is one step of the fundamental operation that builds syntactic structure.

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