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

The splurge tommy guns, designed with the help of a gunsmith, shoot a substance that looks like deliquescent marshmallow.

From Time Magazine Archive

Auric chloride, or gold trichloride, AuCl3, is a dark ruby-red or reddish-brown, crystalline, deliquescent powder obtained by dissolving the metal in aqua regia.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 2 "Gloss" to "Gordon, Charles George" by Various