Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An impelling or restraining force; a compulsion.
  • noun Joint action.
  • noun Ecology Any of the reciprocal actions or effects, such as symbiosis, that can occur in a community.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Force; compulsion, either in restraining or in impelling.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Force; compulsion, either in restraining or impelling.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete force; compulsion, either in restraining or impelling

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun act of working jointly

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English coaccioun, from Latin coāctiō, coāctiōn-, a collecting, from coāctus, past participle of cōgere, to collect, condense; see coagulum. Senses 2 and 3 : co– + action.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin coactio.

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Examples

  • "What we spoke of was strengthening our coaction."

    The Stars Are Also Fire Anderson, Poul, 1926-2001 1994

  • "What we spoke of was strengthening our coaction."

    The Stars Are Also Fire Anderson, Poul, 1926-2001 1994

  • COROLLARY Coaction only circumscribes the liberty of an agent, it does not destroy or take it away; and such circumscription is not made, except through the medium or intervention of the natural inclination; the natural inclination, therefore, is more opposed to liberty than coaction is.

    The Works of James Arminius, Vol. 2 1560-1609 1956

  • Whether the collation be free or necessary it must always be gratuitous, to avoid simony; free, that is without coaction; unconditional; public, so that it may be readily proved; and granted within six months from the date of vacancy.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 2: Assizes-Browne 1840-1916 1913

  • Spontaneous acts and desires are opposed to coaction or external compulsion, but they are not thereby morally free acts.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 6: Fathers of the Church-Gregory XI 1840-1916 1913

  • And, therefore, the wisdom of astrologers, who speak of future things, hath wisely softened the severity of their doctrines; and even in their sad predictions, while they tell us of inclination not coaction from the stars, they kill us not with Stygian oaths and merciless necessity, but leave us hopes of evasion.

    Christian Morals 1605-1682 1863

  • As a creaturely product, it is certainly dependent for its development on the coaction of relative forces, both bodily and mental; but its relation to the evil is still only, even when it derives strength from the relation, one of conflict.

    Theism: The Witness of Reason and Nature to an All-Wise and Beneficent Creator. 1823-1886 1855

  • (2 Cor.iii. 17;) for the Holy Spirit draws their minds, not by coaction, but by the cords of love (Cant.i. 4), by illuminating their minds to know the truth; by changing their hearts to love the known truth; and by enabling every one of them (according to the measure of grace which he has received) to do the good which he loveth.

    The Practice of Piety: Directing a Christian How to Walk, that He May Please God. d. 1631 1842

  • And so we may be subject to certain other laws, in various departments of our complex experience, without being either restrained or impelled by such external coaction as alone can exempt creatures, constituted as we know and feel ourselves to be, from the righteous retributions of God.

    Modern Atheism under its forms of Pantheism, Materialism, Secularism, Development, and Natural Laws James Buchanan 1837

  • God, unless it can be shown that, in the exercise of the latter, God acts in the way of physical coaction or irresistible constraint, and further, that man is not only controlled and governed in his actions, but compelled to act in opposition to his own will.

    Modern Atheism under its forms of Pantheism, Materialism, Secularism, Development, and Natural Laws James Buchanan 1837

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