sublimation

[ suhb-luh-mey-shuhn ]

noun

1. Psychology. the diversion of the energy of a sexual or other biological impulse from its immediate goal to one of a more acceptable social, moral, or aesthetic nature or use.
2. Chemistry. the act, fact, or process of subliming.
3. a purification or refinement; ennoblement.

sublimation

/ sŭb′lə-mā′shən /

1. The process of changing from a solid to a gas without passing through an intermediate liquid phase. Carbon dioxide, at a pressure of one atmosphere, sublimates at about −78 degrees Celsius. Ice and snow on the Earth's surface also sublimate at temperatures below the freezing point of water.
2. Compare deposition

sublimation

¹

1. In Freudian psychology, a defense mechanism by which the individual satisfies a socially prohibited instinctive drive (usually sexual or aggressive) through the substitution of socially acceptable behavior. For example, someone with strong sexual drives who paints nude portraits may be engaging in sublimation.

sublimation

²

1. In chemistry , the direct conversion of a solid into a gas , without passage through a liquid stage. ( See phases of matter .)

Other Words From

• subli·mation·al adjective
• nonsub·li·mation noun
• resub·li·mation noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of sublimation¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; from Middle French, from Late Latin sublimation-, stem of sublimatio “elevation,” equivalent to Latin sublimāt(us), past participle of sublimāre “to elevate” + -iō -ion ( def ); sublimate ( def )

Example Sentences

In some of these cold traps, the sublimation of CO2 ice slows to a crawl—at most a few centimeters of depth lost every billion years.

From Popular-Science

These embedded materials will eventually begin to release back into the air through sublimation and evaporation.

From Popular-Science

Worse, their water could go straight from frozen to evaporated, a process known as sublimation.

From Science News

The conversation about happiness is from episode three, and the sublimation question is from episode four.

From Freakonomics

So I don’t know enough about sublimation to say whether what I do daily is an act of sublimation.

From Freakonomics

And that treatise of Van de Water, the Belgian, on the sublimation of the sub-conscious by the negation of the self-censor.

From Project Gutenberg

Personal experience, they say, means more to them than theory, even though the theory be the sublimation of all experience.

From Project Gutenberg

The sublimation having been carried to a sufficient extent, the fires are allowed to die out.

From Project Gutenberg

The residuum consists of a violet-coloured powder, which, by sublimation, is converted into cinnabar.

From Project Gutenberg

It is then refined by a second sublimation, and melted into the masses in which it is commonly sold.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• reticence
• self-consciousness
• shyness