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
It is thought to derive its character of luxuriant productiveness from a portion of salt intimately blended with its constituents, which, from its tendency to effloresce in a warm sun, renders the compound peculiarly friable.
From Norman's New Orleans and Environs Containing a Brief Historical Sketch of the Territory and State of Louisiana and the City of New Orleans, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time by Norman, B. M.
On the other hand, the mineral, or fossil alkali, is apt to lose its water in a dry atmosphere, and then it is said to effloresce.
From Heads of Lectures on a Course of Experimental Philosophy: Particularly Including Chemistry by Priestley, Joseph
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 Gould, George M. (George Milbrey)
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
What the Ingredients Are of Soapine and Pearline.—They consist of partly effloresced sal soda mixed with half its weight of soda ash.
From Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889 by Burroughs, Barkham
The arsenic and corrosive sublimate effloresced from the ties along the Memphis and Charleston Railroad.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 514, November 7, 1885 by Various
Some buds are expanding; others, which had effloresced more rapidly, have already disappeared.
From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 19, No. 537, March 10, 1832 by Various
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.
These may subsequently be covered with drifting sands and capillary action may cause the borates to work up through the sands, becoming mixed with them and efflorescing at the surface.
From The Economic Aspect of Geology by Leith, C. K. (Charles Kenneth)
Cities, especially Cities in Revolution, are subject to these alternations; the secret courses of civic business and existence effervescing and efflorescing, in this manner, as a concrete Phenomenon to the eye.
From The French Revolution by Carlyle, Thomas
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
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 Maclaren, Alexander
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.
