Meaning

• The quality or state of being tenacious, or persistence of purpose; tenaciousness.

• The quality of bodies which keeps them from parting without considerable force, as distinguished from brittleness, fragility, mobility, etc.

• The effect of this attraction, cohesiveness.

• The quality of bodies which makes them adhere to other bodies; adhesiveness, viscosity.

• The greatest longitudinal stress a substance can bear without tearing asunder, usually expressed with reference to a unit area of the cross section of the substance, as the number of pounds per square inch, or kilograms per square centimeter, necessary to produce rupture.