deliquescent

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   chemistry: absorbing enough moisture from the air to dissolve gradually and form a solution

   Calcium chloride is so deliquescent that an open sample soon becomes liquid.

2. 2
   adj

   botany: branching repeatedly so that the main stem becomes lost among spreading branches

   The elm developed a broad deliquescent crown rather than a single dominant trunk.

3. 3
   adj

   literary: seeming to melt, dissolve, or fade away

   The pale shapes became deliquescent in the morning mist.

From Latin deliquescent-, the present-participle stem of deliquescere, 'to melt away or dissolve,' formed from de- + liquescere, 'to become liquid.' Chemistry adopted the term for solids that liquefy by absorbing atmospheric moisture.

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