absorbent
/əbˈzɔːb(ə)nt
/ /əbˈsɔːb(ə)nt/adjective
(Of a material) able to soak up liquid easily: absorbent kitchen paper...
- In the mid-1860s, he succeeded in mixing it with an inert absorbent material.
- The first material is acrylate, a highly absorbent material that gels with exudate fluid and is capable of absorbing up to 300 times its own weight.
- Green campaigners say home laundered cloth nappies save parents money and they are made mostly from natural fabrics while disposable nappies are made of paper pulp, absorbent chemicals and plastic.
Synonyms
porous, spongy, sponge-like, permeable, pervious, absorptive, penetrable, assimilative, receptive, soaking, blotting
technical spongiform
rare sorbefacient
noun
A substance that soaks up liquid easily.There was a bit of a leak from the tanker so we put absorbents down to soak up the spillage, of about half a litre, and put a barrier up around the vehicle....
- The shola trees, which were natural absorbents, were a fount of natural water sources, says gourmet cheese-maker K. Balakrishnan, who has seen Kodai in its days of pristine beauty.’
- Some articles, however, offer scientific sounding classifications of stain removers into absorbents, bleaches, detergents, solvents, soaps, and enzymes or classifications of stains into absorbed, built-up, or compound.
Derivatives
absorbency
/ /əbˈsɔːbənsi / noun ...- The reason a bleaching process is used is to increase absorbency of rayon, a common component of tampons (note: tampons are not sterile).
- It also has a very high moisture absorbency (12% of its own weight), which means that your perspiration is evaporated quickly through it, leaving you more comfortable on hot days.
- The new materials allow medical-device manufacturers to incorporate specific properties such as hardness, water permeability, and UV-light absorbency.