deliquescentadj.
/ˌdɛlᵻˈkwɛsnt/, U.S. /ˌdɛləˈkwɛs(ə)nt/ 1. Chemistry. That deliquesces; having a tendency to liquefy spontaneously by dissolving in moisture absorbed from the air.
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the world > matter > chemistry > chemical reactions or processes > [adjective] > of or relating to named chemical reactions or processes > of or relating to deliquescence > deliquescent
deliquescent1761
1761 A. Relhan Short Hist. Brighthelmston iv. 46 The deliquescent part, when applied to the tongue, seemed to have a pungent power as if containing salt.
1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 482 A salt is deliquescent, when it has a greater attraction for water than the air, as it will in that case take water from the air.
1845 C. Darwin Jrnl. (ed. 2) iv. 66 Those salts answer best for preserving cheese which contain most of the deliquescent chlorides.
1910 J. A. Murray Soils & Manures iii. 59 All purely hygroscopic water evaporates on exposure to dry air at ordinary temperatures, but the moisture attracted by deliquescent bodies is at least partly retained by them.
1922 Druggists Circular Oct. 402/2 Evidently the doctor who wrote this prescription forgot that potassium acetate is a very deliquescent salt, and that its use in powders is not practical.
2017 S. Zendehboudi & A. Bahadori Shale Oil & Gas Handbk. v. 164 Deliquescent desiccants are constructed using different mixtures of alkali earth metal halide salts such as calcium chloride, which are naturally hygroscopic.
2.
a. Biology. Melting away in the process of growth or of decay (cf. deliquesce v. 1b); having a tendency to melt or become liquid. Also (occasionally): causing dissolution or liquefaction.
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the world > matter > condition of matter > bad condition of matter > [adjective] > decomposed > decomposing, crumbling, or melting away
moultering1568
mouldering1599
dissolving1686
deliquescent1792
murling1827
decomposing1833
disintegrating1872
moulding1907
1792 W. Withering Bot. Arrangem. Brit. Plants (ed. 2) III. Introd. sig. b4 In several of the deliquescent Agarics; especially such as dissolve in decay to an inky liquor, the plants when very young have white Gills.
1854 W. E. Swaine tr. C. Rokitansky Man. Pathol. Anat. I. ix. 145 It has been stated that these pus-like exsudates frequently manifest a corrosive, deliquescent influence upon the textures.
1874 M. C. Cooke Fungi 28 It is very difficult to observe the structure of the hymenium, on account of its deliquescent nature.
1991 E. Barker O Caledonia (1992) iii. 42 She brought in baskets of fungi and identified them from their spore prints, covering any empty floor space in great sheets of paper dotted and oozy with deliquescent fruit bodies.
2000 R. S. Felger Flora Gran Desierto & Río Colorado NW Mexico 413 Portulaca... Flowers brightly colored, opening in sunlight, the petals often lasting only a few hours and then deliquescent (dissolving or melting away).
b. Botany. Characterized by a pattern of branching in which the main stem or axis divides to form the lateral branches, so that the trunk seems to disappear; designating such a branching pattern. Contrasted with excurrent.
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1853 A. Gray Bot. Text-bk. (ed. 4) i. iv. 102 The trunk is lost in the branches, or is deliquescent, as in most of our deciduous-leaved trees.
1880 A. Gray Struct. Bot. iii. §3. 49 Thus the trunk is dissolved into branches, or is deliquescent, as in the White Elm.
1920 Bot. Gaz. 69 37 Most of the growth is strictly limited to the top at this age, but later ages show the maple in its true light as more typically a deliquescent tree.
2011 Forestry Chron. 87 26/1 For deliquescent trees, total height measurement is difficult because the tree top is mostly obscured in a closed canopy forest.
3. gen. Dissolving, disappearing, or melting away (literally or figuratively); tending or liable to do this. Frequently humorous.In quot. 1837: perspiring (cf. deliquescence n. 2a).
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the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > invisibility > [adjective] > vanishing or disappearing
vanishing1434
formelting1606
disparent1617
evanishing1629
disappearing1646
deliquescent1815
relinquent1884
the world > life > the body > organs of excretion > excretions > perspirations > [adjective] > covered or damp with sweat
swotyc893
besweatc1275
forswatc1325
wetc1400
all on a watera1438
foaming1590
sweaty1590
sweated1654
deliquescent1815
perspiry1860
sticky1884
the world > action or operation > adversity > [adjective] > falling from prosperous or thriving condition
drooping1553
downhill1565
downfalling1573
declining1597
stooping1608
sinking1612
waninga1616
deliquescent1937
1815 Northampton Mercury 9 Dec. It gives to the contributor, for the greater part of his deposits, a security, which he will not be easily induced to exchange for so deliquescent an article as ready money.
1837 S. Smith Let. to Singleton in Wks. (1859) II. 294/1 Striding over the stiles to Church, with a second-rate wife—dusty and deliquescent—and four parochial children.
1896 Daily Mail 29 May 4/3 The heat of a hot day in St. Louis is insupportable; one's limbs seem to become deliquescent.
1937 V. D. Scudder On Journey i. iv. 83 ‘Laissez Faire’ was in its hey-day then; it is deliquescent now, though it lingers in the liking for ‘Rugged Individualism’.
2015 A. Thirlwell Lurid & Cute ii. 83 Hiro and Wyman and I pursued sprezzatura pastimes like getting fat, or fatter, eating peanut-butter waffles and vanilla shakes, or sometimes both together, in some deliquescent form of sundae.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2020; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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adj.1761