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
Unlike the generality of ugly heroines, you will not see me develop and effloresce into beauty toward the end of my story.
From Nancy by Broughton, Rhoda
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 Maclaren, Alexander
The longest way round is the shortest way home; trust Him with all your hearts first, and that will effloresce into "whatsoever things are lovely and whatever things are of good report."
From Expositions of Holy Scripture St. John Chapters I to XIV by Maclaren, Alexander
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
Remember, but for these loppings of affliction you might have effloresced into the rank luxuriant growth of mere external profession.
From Memories of Bethany by Macduff, John R. (John Ross)
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
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 Geyer, Delton Loring
Is not, after all, Love the one supreme and significant fact of the cosmos: indelible, indecipherable: efflorescing in Man; emerging from the material; idealizing the carnal; pointing to an inscrutable, a spiritual goal?
From Hints for Lovers by Haultain, T. Arnold (Theodore Arnold)
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
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 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
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)
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.
