From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Tenacious \Te*na"cious\, a. [L. tenax, -acis, from tenere to
hold. See Tenable, and cf. Tenace.]
1. Holding fast, or inclined to hold fast; inclined to retain
what is in possession; as, men tenacious of their just
rights.
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2. Apt to retain; retentive; as, a tenacious memory.
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3. Having parts apt to adhere to each other; cohesive; tough;
as, steel is a tenacious metal; tar is more tenacious than
oil. --Sir I. Newton.
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4. Apt to adhere to another substance; glutinous; viscous;
sticking; adhesive. "Female feet, too weak to struggle
with tenacious clay." --Cowper.
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5. Niggardly; closefisted; miserly. --Ainsworth.
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6. Holding stoutly to one's opinion or purpose; obstinate;
stubborn.
[1913 Webster] -- Te*na"cious*ly, adv. --
Te*na"cious*ness, n.
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From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
tenacious
adj 1: good at remembering; "a retentive mind"; "tenacious
memory" [syn: retentive, recollective, long,
tenacious] [ant: forgetful, short, unretentive]
2: stubbornly unyielding; "dogged persistence"; "dour
determination"; "the most vocal and pertinacious of all the
critics"; "a mind not gifted to discover truth but tenacious
to hold it"- T.S.Eliot; "men tenacious of opinion" [syn:
dogged, dour, persistent, pertinacious, tenacious,
unyielding]
3: sticking together; "two coherent sheets"; "tenacious burrs"
[syn: coherent, tenacious]