Library / English Dictionary

DISSIPATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Spend frivolously and unwisely

Example:

Fritter away one's inheritance

Synonyms:

dissipate; fool; fool away; fritter; fritter away; frivol away; shoot

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Hypernyms (to "dissipate" is one way to...):

consume; squander; ware; waste (spend extravagantly)

"Dissipate" entails doing...:

consume; deplete; eat; eat up; exhaust; run through; use up; wipe out (use up (resources or materials))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

dissipation (useless or profitless activity; using or expending or consuming thoughtlessly or carelessly)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Move away from each other

Example:

The children scattered in all directions when the teacher approached

Synonyms:

disperse; dissipate; scatter; spread out

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "dissipate" is one way to...):

part; separate; split (go one's own way; move apart)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "dissipate"):

aerosolise; aerosolize (become dispersed as an aerosol)

break (scatter or part)

volley (be dispersed in a volley)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Derivation:

dissipation (breaking up and scattering by dispersion)

Sense 3

Meaning:

To cause to separate and go in different directions

Example:

She waved her hand and scattered the crowds

Synonyms:

break up; dispel; disperse; dissipate; scatter

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "dissipate" is one way to...):

divide; separate (make a division or separation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "dissipate"):

disband (cause to break up or cease to function)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

dissipation (breaking up and scattering by dispersion)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Live a life of pleasure, especially with respect to alcoholic consumption

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "dissipate" is one way to...):

live (lead a certain kind of life; live in a certain style)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

dissipation (dissolute indulgence in sensual pleasure)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The researchers focused on four variations of ENSO events: strong winter events that persist well into spring, and weak events that dissipate soon after their winter peak.

(Ocean temperatures may hold key to predicting tornado outbreaks, NOAA)

A plate or similar structure designed to direct the flow of a fluid or dissipate its energy.

(Baffle Device Component, NCI Thesaurus)

It reminded her of their first forlorn tete-a-tete, on the evening of Mrs. Weston's wedding-day; but Mr. Knightley had walked in then, soon after tea, and dissipated every melancholy fancy.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I was alone; none were near me to dissipate the gloom and relieve me from the sickening oppression of the most terrible reveries.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Cassini tracked the system of clouds developing and dissipating over the large methane sea known as Ligeia Mare for more than two days.

(Cassini tracks clouds developing over a Titan sea, NASA)

Inhibition of cell cycle checkpoint/DNA repair enzymes may enhance the cytotoxicity of DNA damaging agents and dissipate tumor cell resistance to chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

(Cell Cycle Checkpoint/DNA Repair Antagonist IC83, NCI Thesaurus)

Since CH+ forms exclusively in small areas where turbulent motions of gas dissipates, its detection in essence traces energy on a galactic scale.

(ALMA Finds Huge Hidden Reservoirs of Turbulent Gas in Distant Galaxies, ESO)

One explanation is that the disk dissipated before the planet could bulk up further.

(Atmosphere of Midsize Planet Revealed by Hubble, Spitzer, NASA)

She stirred herself, put back the curtain, and I saw her face, pale, wasted, but quite composed: she looked so little changed that my fear was instantly dissipated.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

As the sunlight-blocking aerosols from Mount Pinatubo dissipated in the simulations, sea levels began to slowly rebound to pre-eruption levels.

(Volcanic eruption masked acceleration in sea level rise, NSF)