deliquescent

American  

[del-i-kwes-uhnt] / ˌdɛl ɪˈkwɛs ənt /

adjective

1. dissolving or melting away; having a fragile or ephemeral quality.

2. Chemistry. tending to dissolve or liquefy by absorbing moisture from the air.

3. Botany. forming many small divisions or branches.

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deliquescent Scientific  

/ dĕl′ĭ-kwĕs′ənt /

1. Relating to a solid substance that absorbs moisture from the air and becomes liquid. Deliquescent substances usually absorb so much moisture from the air that they form a strong solution. Potassium hydroxide is deliquescent.

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Other Word Forms

• deliquescence noun
• non-deliquescent adjective

Explanation

The adjective deliquescent describes something that tends to absorb so much water from the air around it that it starts to become liquified itself. This scientific term is perfect for describing a substance like salt, which tends to pull moisture into itself, as it's in the process of becoming soggy. If you ever leave a dish of salt on the kitchen counter on a humid day and watch as liquid begins to pool around it, you can say, "Wow, that salt is deliquescent." The Latin root is liquere, "to be liquid."

Example Sentences

The crystals are deliquescent, very soluble in water, and have an odor like that of garlic.

From Textbooks • Feb. 14, 2019

The John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble’s CD release performance began with “Elf” — an extended composition based around “Isfahan,” the deliquescent Billy Strayhorn ballad — and ended on a bridling, crosshatched rendition of Kraftwerk’s “The Model.”

From New York Times • Jan. 31, 2018

Dulwich exhibits Hero and Leandro, painted like those landscape panels in 1985 – their dribbles and fingerworking here orchestrated into a deliquescent collapse of mist-greys and cerise.

From The Guardian • Jul. 6, 2011

In grade, the Gillette coal is a sub-bituminous kind called black lignite�tough, deliquescent, easily crumbled when exposed to air, when it also tends to combust spontaneously.

From Time Magazine Archive

The gills in both species are adnate, crowded; but in fascicularis they are also linear and deliquescent, and are yellow in color.

From Student's Hand-book of Mushrooms of America, Edible and Poisonous by Taylor, Thomas