effloresce
Americanverb (used without object)
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to burst into bloom; blossom.
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Chemistry.
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to change either throughout or on the surface to a mealy or powdery substance upon exposure to air, as a crystalline substance through loss of water of crystallization.
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to become incrusted or covered with crystals of salt or the like through evaporation or chemical change.
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verb
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to burst forth into or as if into flower; bloom
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to become powdery by loss of water or crystallization
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to become encrusted with powder or crystals as a result of chemical change or the evaporation of a solution
Etymology
Origin of effloresce
1765–75; < Latin efflōrēscere to blossom out, equivalent to ef- ef- + flōrēscere to begin to bloom ( flōr ( i )-, stem of flōs flower + -ēscere -esce )
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:
Two decades later the image would effloresce in the story/novella “Cousins”:
From New York Times ● Apr. 27, 2015
But eventually the virus predominates in the blood and the primitive cells effloresce into cancer.
From Time Magazine Archive
But the broad principles will effloresce into all manner of perfectnesses and all fruits.
From Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. John by Alexander Maclaren
They will effloresce into manifold shapes of beauty and fruitfulness, of which the Prophet signalises three.
From Expositions of Holy Scripture Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Minor Prophets. St Matthew Chapters I to VIII by Alexander Maclaren
Metals crystallize; frosts effloresce, plants become living things, inanimate matter takes animate form, monads vibrate, the pantheism of nature makes itself manifest.
From Concerning Lafcadio Hearn With a Bibliography by Laura Stedman by George M. (George Milbrey) Gould
The written-out trills of the 28th Variation effloresced with a mild gleam, and the fughetta of the 10th hit the ear with a tonal wall of sound.
From New York Times ● Feb. 8, 2024
Since his marriage, he has effloresced in Washington society.
From Time Magazine Archive
As for McGill, he expanded, he effloresced, if such a nature as his could be said to bloom.
From The Crimson Gardenia and Other Tales of Adventure by Rex Ellingwood Beach
Compelled communism is not the repetition of that oneness of sympathy which effloresced in the bright flower of this common possession of individual goods.
From Expositions of Holy Scripture: the Acts by Alexander Maclaren
Sometimes the manners of the British have effloresced in scolding at the word as ill-chosen—ill-chosen, that is, to express some meaning that it was rather designed to exclude.
From The pragmatic theory of truth as developed by Peirce, James, and Dewey by Delton Loring Geyer
This had the double disadvantage of rendering the specimen cured by its aid almost dripping with humidity in damp weather, and efflorescing with the double salts around the eyes and mouth in dry weather.
And although the waters are healed, there still remain the obstinate marshes with the white crystals efflorescing on their surface, and bringing salt and barrenness.
From Expositions of Holy Scripture Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Minor Prophets. St Matthew Chapters I to VIII by Alexander Maclaren
And the gladness which is wholesome and blessed, and is 'joy in the Lord,' will manifest itself by efflorescing into all holiness and all loftiness and largeness of obedience.
From Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah and Jeremiah by Alexander Maclaren
Before leaving the valley, he observed a hillock glistening white: it appears from its salt, bitter taste, to have been some kind of nitrate efflorescing from the ground.
From First Footsteps in East Africa by Sir Richard Francis Burton
There stood that unfinished world reeking with charcoal fumes, its soft, fungous, cryptogamic vegetation efflorescing with fierce luxuriance in that ghastly carbonic atmosphere.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 15, January, 1859 by Various
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.
