Association \As*so`ci*a"tion\ (?; 277), n. [Cf. F. association, LL. associatio, fr. L. associare.]

1. The act of associating, or state of being associated; union; connection, whether of persons of things. ``Some . . . bond of association.'' --Hooker.

Self-denial is a kind of holy association with God. --Boyle.

2. Mental connection, or that which is mentally linked or associated with a thing.

Words . . . must owe their powers association. --Johnson.

Why should . . . the holiest words, with all their venerable associations, be profaned? --Coleridge.

3. Union of persons in a company or society for some particular purpose; as, the American Association for the Advancement of Science; a benevolent association. Specifically, as among the Congregationalists, a society, consisting of a number of ministers, generally the pastors of neighboring churches, united for promoting the interests of religion and the harmony of the churches.

Association of ideas (Physiol.), the combination or connection of states of mind or their objects with one another, as the result of which one is said to be revived or represented by means of the other. The relations according to which they are thus connected or revived are called the law of association. Prominent among them are reckoned the relations of time and place, and of cause and effect. --Porter.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)