EFFLORESCE

effloresce

(verb) become encrusted with crystals due to evaporation

effloresce, burst forth

(verb) come into or as if into flower; “These manifestations effloresced in the past”

crystallize, crystalize, crystalise, effloresce

(verb) assume crystalline form; become crystallized

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Verb

effloresce (third-person singular simple present effloresces, present participle efflorescing, simple past and past participle effloresced)

(intransitive, obsolete, except, figuratively) To burst into bloom; to flower.

(intransitive, figuratively) Of something hidden: to come forth, to emerge; also, to reach full glory or power.

(intransitive, chemistry) Senses relating to chemistry.

Of a substance: to change from being crystalline to powdery by losing water of crystallization.

Of a salt: to seep through some material (bricks, concrete, earth, rock, etc.) in a dissolved state, and then crystallize on a surface in a powdery form.

Of the surface of a material: to become covered with a powdery salt (as described in sense 3.2).

Source: Wiktionary


Ef`flo*resce", v. i. [imp. & p. p. Effloresced; p. pr. & vb. n. Efflorescing.] Etym: [L. efflorescere to bloom, blossom; ex + florescere to begin to blossom, incho., fr. florere to blossom, fr. flos a flower. See Flower.]

1. To blossom forth. Carlyle.

2. (Chem.)

Definition: To change on the surface, or throughout, to a whitish, mealy, or crystalline powder, from a gradual decomposition, esp. from the loss of water, on simple exposure to the air; as, Glauber's salts, and many others, effloresce.

3. To become covered with a whitish crust or light crystallization, from a slow chemical change between some of the ingredients of the matter covered and an acid proceeding commonly from an external source; as, the walls of limestone caverns sometimes effloresce with nitrate of calcium in consequence of the action in consequence of nitric acid formed in the atmosphere.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

29 November 2024

POPULATED

(adjective) furnished with inhabitants; “the area is well populated”; “forests populated with all kinds of wild life”


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Coffee Trivia

The average annual yield from one coffee tree is the equivalent of 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of roasted coffee. It takes about 4,000 hand-picked green coffee beans to make a pound of coffee.

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