sublimate
Americanverb (used with object)
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sublimates,
present (3rd person singular)
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sublimated,
past participle, past
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sublimating
present participle
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Psychology. to divert the energy of (a sexual or other biological impulse) from its immediate goal to one of a more acceptable social, moral, or aesthetic nature or use.
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Chemistry.
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to sublime (a solid substance); extract by this process.
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to refine or purify (a substance).
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to make nobler or purer.
To read about great men sublimates ambition.
verb (used without object)
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sublimates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
sublimated,
past participle, past
-
sublimating
present participle
noun
adjective
verb
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psychol to direct the energy of (a primitive impulse, esp a sexual one) into activities that are considered to be socially more acceptable
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(tr) to make purer; refine
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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sublimablenessnoun
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sublimationnoun
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desublimateverb (used with object)
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resublimateverb (used with object)
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sublimableadjective
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supersublimatedadjective
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unsublimatedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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sublimatesimple
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sublimatessimple
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have sublimatedperfect
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has sublimatedperfect
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am sublimatingprogressive
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are sublimatingprogressive
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is sublimatingprogressive
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have been sublimatingperfect progressive
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has been sublimatingperfect progressive
Past
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sublimatedsimple
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had sublimatedperfect
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was sublimatingprogressive
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were sublimatingprogressive
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had been sublimatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sublimate
1425–75; late Middle English: exalted, sublimated < Latin sublīmātus (past participle of sublīmāre to elevate), equivalent to sublīm ( is ) sublime + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
When you're at a lecture and you feel restless, you've got to sublimate the desire to move around. That means you force the desire to be more subtle so you can continue listening — even if you don't want to. Psychologists use the verb sublimate to describe the process of channeling intense energy into something useful or appropriate. Freud sublimated his desire to live at home with his mother, and he moved into his own apartment. Sublimate is related to the word sublime — both words come from the Latin word sublimare, which means "to raise up" or "to exalt." So Freud's finally getting his own place is, arguably, a superior — a more exalted — living situation.
Vocabulary lists containing sublimate
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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:
It almost feels like some kind of test, where you are forced to sublimate your wishes and, perhaps, your self respect.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 5, 2026
We have to sublimate a lot of emotions into our sports teams because we’re repressed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2024
Halloween may be over, but if you ask me carving a gourd still seems like a good way to sublimate creeping dread.
From Slate ● Nov. 4, 2022
Dexter, too, has taught himself to sublimate his more extreme impulses; the parallels can seem uncomfortably apt.
From New York Times ● Nov. 2, 2021
From its being coagulable by various salts, and especially by corrosive sublimate, with which it forms an insoluble compound, white of egg is a convenient antidote in cases of poisoning by that substance.
From The New Gresham Encyclopedia. Vol. 1 Part 1 A to Amide by Various
He sublimates by focusing on new fabrication methods and by researching casting and molding techniques.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 27, 2026
With that said, I do think some surprising sensitivities within the conservative doctrine have come into view, as the movement sublimates into the uncomfortable posture of the establishment.
From Slate ● Feb. 12, 2026
"Because Martian air is so thin and the temperatures so cold, water-ice snow sublimates, or becomes a gas, before it even touches the ground. Dry-ice snow actually does reach the ground," NASA's website states.
From Salon ● May 16, 2025
Hoss, whose quiet, sympathetic gaze can register even the subtlest shifts in emotional temperature, here sublimates her star persona in much the same way that Sharon represses her own needs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2022
In the flame of reduction, and upon charcoal, it is reduced with intumescence to metallic lead, which is volatilized by a continued blast, and sublimates on charcoal, as mentioned above.
Mr. Jones suggests that James sublimated doubts and forbidden desires into his stories and the routines of Cambridge and Eton.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
Britpop conveyed Britishness through wryness; grunge articulated Americana through sublimated passion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2025
The 12-foot-long cabinetlike work is the latest in the series that Peters calls “impossible monuments”: installations made out of disparate, significant materials that explore overlooked or sublimated matters of import.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 20, 2024
Materials are sublimated in a vacuum under heat supply, i.e. they are converted from a solid to a gaseous state and condense on the substrate surface.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 14, 2024
It seemed, for the most part, that he sublimated his anger towards Henry into his dealings with the rest of the world.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
In earlier work, she showed that sublimating CO2 ice can trigger debris flows that cut deep channels along crater walls.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2025
Yet they have enough in common that one might think they could be friends: Each is frustrated with life, work, their domestic arrangements, their parents; depressed; and sublimating their anger except as regards the other.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 10, 2023
But previous work has shown that sublimating water ice alone couldn’t provide enough push to explain ’Oumuamua’s anomalous acceleration, so the authors of the new paper add an additional step.
From Scientific American ● Mar. 22, 2023
I suggested that perhaps in an age of digital streaming, streetwear had replaced record collecting, sublimating whatever obsessive, completist, seemingly male-specific tendencies that were once reserved for rare Nirvana EPs and Kanye’s earliest mixtapes.
From New York Times ● Sep. 3, 2018
Suddenly he found himself sublimating his fear, rising to a place where he could look the scythe in his dark eyes, the same deep shade of blue as his robe.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
