discandyv.
/ˌdɪsˈkandi/, U.S. /ˌdɪsˈkændi/ rare.
intransitive. To melt, dissolve. Chiefly figurative.Frequently with allusion to Shakespeare's use.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > liquid > making or becoming liquid > action or process of melting > melt [verb (intransitive)]
melteOE
dissolve?c1450
discandya1616
fuse1800
a1616 W. Shakespeare Antony & Cleopatra (1623) iv. xiii. 22 The hearts..to whom I gaue Their wishes, do dis-Candie, melt their sweets On blossoming Cæsar. View more context for this quotation
1733 L. Theobald Wks. Shakespeare VI. 289 (note) Cleopatra's Wish is this; that the Gods would ingender Hail and poyson it; and that as it fell upon her and her Subjects, and melted, their Lives might determine, as that dissolv'd and discandied.
1961 Poetry Apr. 54 It isn't long before the soft center is discandying with lines like ‘I take her in my arms, a cobweb full of diamonds’.
2005 W. B. Worthen Print & Poetics of Mod. Drama iii. 125 When we turn the page, we might be surprised to find the poem discandying into what looks like prose.
Derivatives
disˈcandying n.
ΚΠ
a1616 W. Shakespeare Antony & Cleopatra (1623) iii. xiii. 168 By the discandering [read discandying] of this pelleted storme. View more context for this quotation
1957 Stud. in Philol. 54 157 The pattern in the play is one of melting, fading, dissolving, discandying,..and losing of form that marks Antony's downward course after Actium.
2002 M. T. Burnett Constructing ‘Monsters’ in Early Shakespearean Drama vi. 166 The ‘monstrosity’ of Ursula is initially communicated via a process of spectacular discandying that suggests primal transgression and bodily metamorphosis.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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