to combine, blend, or unite gradually so as to blur the individuality or individual identity of: They voted to merge the two branch offices into a single unit.
verb (used without object)
3.
to become combined, united, swallowed up, or absorbed; lose identity by uniting or blending (often followed by in or into ): This stream merges into the river up ahead.
4.
to combine or unite into a single enterprise, organization, body, etc.: The two firms merged last year.
Origin: 1630–40; < Latinmergere to dip, immerse, plunge into water
Related forms
mer·gence, noun
an·ti·merg·ing, adjective
de·merge, verb (used with object), de·merged, de·merg·ing.
re·merge, verb, re·merged, re·merg·ing.
un·merge, verb (used with object), un·merged, un·merg·ing.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
1630s, "to plunge or sink in," from L. mergere "to dip, immerse," probably rhotacized from *mezgo, and cognate with Skt. majjati "dives under," Lith. mazgoju "to wash." Legal sense of "absorption of an estate, contract, etc. into another" is from 1726.