resolventadj.n.

1655 H. Vaughan tr. H. Nolle Hermetical Physick xi. 97 Thus the stone which proceeds from Tartar, or coagulated Salt, is cured by Salt, but it must be Analytical or resolvent salt [L. sale..resoluente].

1676 R. Wiseman Severall Chirurg. Treat. i. xix. 94 I..applied the milder resolvent Emplaster.

1676 W. Harris tr. N. de Blégny New & Curious Observ. Venereal Dis. 79 When the Inflammation and pain shall be taken away by all these Remedies..you may begin to use resolvent Cataplasms.

1732 J. Arbuthnot Pract. Rules of Diet i. 249 A milky Juice..resolvent of the Bile.

1776 C. Este Tracts Med. Subj. 15 Be the resolvent application what it may, it is most commodiously exhibited in the Form of Fomentation, Vapour, or Cataplasm.

1822 J. M. Good Study Med. II. 715 All the chylific organs secrete an unusual quantity of resolvent juices.

1866 W. Odling Lect. Animal Chem. 158 The so-called resolvent action of alkalies upon the animal economy.

1905 Lancet 25 Nov. 1551/2 The resolvent action of the rays on neoplasms..is discussed.

1945 Southtown Economist (Chicago) 7 Feb. 14 c/1 The miracle resolvent soap takes the dirt—protects the skin.

1995 Clin. Infectious Dis. 21 1052/1 (title) Morganella morganii pericarditis after resolvent splenectomy for immune pancytopenia.

1856 J. F. Ferrier Inst. Metaphysic (ed. 2) 25 The proposition adds nothing to our knowledge: it is merely explicative, or resolvent.

1860 R. Harley in Mem. Literary & Philos. Soc. Manch. 2nd Ser. 15 173 The product,..which may be called the symmetric or resolvent product, according as it is or is not symmetric, plays an important part in the finite algebraic solution of the equation of the n th degree.

1892 Bull. N.Y. Math. Soc. 1 202 The expression of the roots of a quartic is easily made in terms of the roots of a resolvent cubic.

1912 Nature 18 July 499/1 The so-called ‘kernel’ and the derived ‘resolvent kernel’ have received appropriate names.

1958 F. Smithies Integral Equations ii. 29 Theorem 2·5·2 could also be proved directly without appealing to the properties of the resolvent kernel.

2006 J. Derbyshire Unknown Quantity vii. 125 For an algebraic solution of the general quintic equation, we need to devise a resolvent equation that is cubic or quartic.

1676 R. Wiseman Severall Chirurg. Treat. i. xix. 92 Young people..require to be treated with milder Resolvents then those who live a labouring life.

1758 J. Wood Suppl. to Treat. Farriery 16 As soon as Resolvents take effect.

1797 Encycl. Brit. XVII. 567/2 Soap is also externally employed as a resolvent.

1827 J. Forbes tr. R. T. H. Laennec Treat. Dis. Chest (ed. 2) i. ii. vi. 206 Bloodletting, derivatives, and resolvents or stimulants of the absorbent system,..retard the progress of the disease.

1876 W. H. Burt Therapeutics Tuberculosis 114 Where is there a more certain..slime-loosening resolvent.

1883–4 Med. Ann. 9/2 He believes the drug to be an aplastic or resolvent of great energy.

1931 Lancet 10 Oct. 788/2 The therapeutic measures for prostatic conditions are..(3) X rays..in large doses as a resolvent.

1965 Beckley (W. Virginia) Post-Herald 17 Nov. 4/5 ‘Dr. Radway's Sarsaparillian Resolvent’ is stated as making astonishing cures so quick and so rapid that ‘Every Day an Increase in Flesh and Weight is Seen and Felt.’

1678 E. Phillips New World of Words (new ed.) at Resolution The violent separation of bodies commixt together, by the application of a Resolvent, i.e. some sharp and dissolving ingredient.

1708 J. Keill Acct. Animal Secretion Pref. p. xv Different Substances require different Resolvents.

1900 Q. Rev. July 55 The whole earth, the one disinfectant and resolvent of death and decay.

1851 R. A. Willmott Pleasures of Lit. ii. 6 The harsher resolvents of digamma and allegory.

1880 R. G. White Every-day Eng. 142 A coin which would serve as a common resolvent of all accounts.

1892 Critic (N.Y.) 1 Oct. 186/2 But those who know the man..scarcely look for such a resolvent of Samoan troubles.

1934 Times 29 Oct. 13/4 Any genuine philosophy of American life which might serve as a resolvent of difficulties and a director of purpose.

2000 J. R. McGovern Time for Hope vii. 123 Whites then felt impelled to exercise their ultimate weapon, lynching, as a resolvent of tensions.

1859 London, Edinb. & Dublin Philos. Mag. 18 54 One of the roots of its resolvent..is a rational function of another.

1904 F. Cajori Introd. Mod. Theory Equations xii. 130 If we are given the values of the Lagrangian resolvents of an equation..of the nth degree and the nth roots of unity, the equation..is solved.

1991 C. B. Boyer & U. C. Merzbach Hist. Math. (ed. 2) xxii. 491 Finding that a resolvent of a quintic equation..was a sextic, Lagrange conjectured that polynomial equations above fourth degree are not solvable in the usual sense.

2004 J. W. Jones & D. P. Roberts in D. Buell Algorithmic Number Theory 294 Resolvents play a major role in the computation of Galois groups over Q.