fluid

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   affording change (especially in social status)

   Britain is not a truly fluid society

2. 2
   adj

   in cash or easily convertible to cash

   liquid (or fluid) assets

3. 3
   noun

   Any substance which can flow with relative ease, tends to assume the shape of its container, and obeys Bernoulli's principle; a liquid, gas or plasma.

   An extreme version of vorticity is a vortex. The vortex is a spinning, cyclonic mass of fluid, which can be observed in the rotation of water going down a drain, as well as in smoke rings, tornados and hurricanes.

4. 4
   noun

   A liquid (as opposed to a solid or gas).

   fluid inclusion Petrology, a tiny fluid- or gas-filled cavity in an igneous rock. 1-100 micrometers in diameter, formed by the entrapment of a fluid, typically that from which the rock crystallized.

5. 5
   adj

   In a state of flux; subject to change.

   Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.

6. 6
   adj

   Moving smoothly, or giving the impression of a liquid in motion.

   Tom of the fluid pelvis, undulating about the living room in defiance of Michael's taboo on sensuality.

7. 7
   adj

   Genderfluid.

   Oh, Loki made sure of that. My mortal parents blamed him for the way I was, for being fluid.

8. 8
   adj

   subject to change

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰel-der. Proto-Indo-European *bʰlewH-der. Proto-Indo-European *bʰluH-yé-ti? Latin fluō Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-der. Latin -idus Latin fluidusder. Middle English fluid English fluid From Middle English fluid, from Latin fluidus (“flowing; fluid”), from Latin fluō (“to flow”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- (“to swell; surge; overflow; run”). Akin to Ancient Greek φλύειν (phlúein, “to swell; overflow”). Not related to English flow, which is a native, inherited word from *plew-, but is distantly related from English bleat.