单词 | quicksilver |
释义 | quicksilver (once / 3768 pages) nadj Use the noun quicksilver when you need a more poetic way to talk about the element known as mercury. If you look closely at an old-fashioned thermometer, you can see the quicksilver inside it. It's more common to refer to this metal — the only one that is liquid at room temperature — as mercury, but it's also correct to call it quicksilver, which describes the properties of the element very well. Quicksilver is liquid, silver colored, and is fascinating to look at. The word comes from the sense of quick that means "alive;" the Latin root is argentum vivum, which is literally "living silver." WORD FAMILYquicksilver: quicksilvers USAGE EXAMPLES“Normal,” with its satisfying narrative and quicksilver eye, is in some ways a match for those novels. New York Times(Dec 11, 2016) The 60-year-old man was scuba diving at Agincourt Reef in Far North Queensland when he was seen to be in trouble, tour operator Quicksilver said. BBC(Nov 18, 2016) The Alice books move like quicksilver — sleek globules of sense splitting and straying through the maze. Nature(Nov 15, 2016) 1n a heavy silvery toxic univalent and bivalent metallic element; the only metal that is liquid at ordinary temperatures Syn|Hyper Hg, atomic number 80, hydrargyrum, mercury metal, metallic element any of several chemical elements that are usually shiny solids that conduct heat or electricity and can be formed into sheets etc. 2adj liable to sudden unpredictable change a quicksilver character, cool and willful at one moment, utterly fragile the next Syn erratic, fickle, mercurial changeable, changeful such that alteration is possible; having a marked tendency to change |
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