deliquesce

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to absorb moisture from the air until dissolved in the resulting liquid

   Calcium chloride will deliquesce if the container is left open in humid air.

2. 2
   verb

   to become soft or liquid as a plant or fungal structure ages and decays

   The ink cap's gills deliquesce into a dark fluid as the mushroom matures.

From Latin deliquescere ("to melt away or become liquid"), formed from de- ("away") + liquescere ("to become fluid"), the inchoative of liquere ("to be fluid"). The scientific moisture-absorbing sense developed from this literal change into liquid.

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