dissolvent
Americanadjective
noun
noun
adjective
Etymology
Origin of dissolvent
First recorded in 1640–50, dissolvent is from the Latin word dissolvent- (stem of dissolvēns, present participle of dissolvere ). See dis- 1, solvent
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.
The subjects are chosen almost at random, and are very frequently nothing but pegs on which to hang notes and digressions in which the author indulges his critical and dissolvent faculty.
From A Short History of French Literature by George Saintsbury
The Reformation," according to H. A. L. Fisher, "was the great dissolvent of European conservatism.
From The Age of the Reformation by Preserved Smith
Yet few of these emancipated citizens of the world had permitted the dissolvent philosophy of the century to enter the very pith and fiber of their mental quality.
From Beginnings of the American People by William E. Dodd
The French Revolution, which extinguished feudalism as a system and the nobility as a privileged class, speedily ceased to be a mere dissolvent.
From The Inside Story of the Peace Conference by Emile Joseph Dillon
It is enough here to remind ourselves how serious a place is held by that work in the dissolvent literature of the generation.
From Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 3 of 3) Essay 7: W.R. Greg: A Sketch by John Morley
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.
