deliquesce
Americanverb (used without object)
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to become liquid by absorbing moisture from the air, as certain salts.
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to melt away.
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Botany. to form many small divisions or branches.
verb
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(esp of certain salts) to dissolve gradually in water absorbed from the air
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(esp of certain fungi) to dissolve into liquid, usually at maturity
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(of a plant stem) to form many branches
Etymology
Origin of deliquesce
First recorded in 1750–60; from Latin dēliquēscere “to become liquid,” equivalent to dē- de- + liquēscere; see liquescent
Explanation
To deliquesce is to melt away or become liquid. On a very hot and humid day, a dish of salt left on the counter will begin to deliquesce, slowly dissolving into a pool of moisture. In scientific terms, a substance deliquesces when it absorbs so much water from the atmosphere that it begins to dissolve. Many different things deliquesce, including certain salts and plants, gradually becoming damp or mushy and eventually melting away completely. You can also use this word in a joking or figurative way whenever you're really sweaty: "It's so hot out here I'm starting to deliquesce!" Deliquesce is from the Latin deliquescere, "to melt away."
Vocabulary lists containing deliquesce
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Then, surprise: a secret chamber filled with the yolk of a hard-boiled egg, bright yellow and just starting to deliquesce.
From New York Times ● Jul. 19, 2012
The home-schooled whiz was such a wreck, she asked to wait offstage between spelling such words as deliquesce and sufflaminate.
From Time Magazine Archive
Most of the former are firmer, while the black spored specimens soon deliquesce.
From The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise Its Habitat and its Time of Growth by Hard, Miron Elisha
I have, however, since, from the same materials, produced the salt above-mentioned in a state not subject to deliquesce or evaporate.
From Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air by Priestley, Joseph
Coprini are apt to deliquesce, certain other specimens, especially in warm weather, are apt to be so infested with larvæ that they will be ruined by morning, when immediate drying might save them.
From Studies of American Fungi. Mushrooms, Edible, Poisonous, etc. by Atkinson, George Francis
These creepy sculptures bring to mind George Segal figures in hospital gowns, deliquesced to resemble diseased, screaming versions of George Lucas’s Yoda, a figure with no place in this deranged galaxy.
From New York Times ● Jul. 17, 2014
For a short while the flaming phantasma lingered firm and orb-like, while the space between itself and reality grew to a hand's breadth; then slowly deliquesced.
From Fountains in the Sand Rambles Among the Oases of Tunisia by Douglas, Norman
Dr. Moore sent me some preserved in alcohol; it was dried, but soon deliquesced.
From Insectivorous Plants by Darwin, Charles
Whereupon the stranger deliquesced and reformed into the personable simulacrum of young Mr. Darcy.
From My Fair Planet by Smith, Evelyn E.
The first quantity that I produced immediately deliquesced, upon being exposed to the common air; but if it was exposed in a very dry and warm place, it almost all evaporated, in a white cloud.
From Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air by Priestley, Joseph
That was sitting out there, in a state of just deliquescing.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 28, 2019
As we near St. Kilda, the islands look as if they’re deliquescing.
From New York Times ● May 7, 2018
The mood is loosened, people starting to mingle like deliquescing particles.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 13, 2017
These trips, the author writes, “keep his body from deliquescing at a faster rate than it already was.”
From New York Times ● Jan. 15, 2013
The pileus is membranaceous, yellow, becoming moist; gills moist but not deliquescing, finally losing their color and becoming powdery; stem hollow and confluent with the hymenophore.
From The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise Its Habitat and its Time of Growth by Hard, Miron Elisha
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
