Library / English Dictionary

SUBLIMATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The product of vaporization of a solid

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("sublimate" is a kind of...):

gas (a fluid in the gaseous state having neither independent shape nor volume and being able to expand indefinitely)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sublimate"):

bichloride of mercury; corrosive sublimate; mercuric chloride; mercury chloride (a white poisonous soluble crystalline sublimate of mercury; used as a pesticide or antiseptic or wood preservative)

Derivation:

sublimate (vaporize and then condense right back again)

sublimate (change or cause to change directly from a solid into a vapor without first melting)

sublimate (remove impurities from, increase the concentration of, and separate through the process of distillation)

sublime (vaporize and then condense right back again)

 II. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Made pure

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

pure (free of extraneous elements of any kind)

 III. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Vaporize and then condense right back again

Synonyms:

sublimate; sublime

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

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

change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)

"Sublimate" entails doing...:

condense (cause a gas or vapor to change into a liquid)

evaporate; vaporise; vaporize (lose or cause to lose liquid by vaporization leaving a more concentrated residue)

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

resublime (sublime (a compound) once again)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

sublimate (the product of vaporization of a solid)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Change or cause to change directly from a solid into a vapor without first melting

Example:

some salts sublime when heated

Synonyms:

sublimate; sublime

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

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

aerify; gasify; vaporise; vaporize (turn into gas)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something ----s something

Derivation:

sublimate (the product of vaporization of a solid)

sublimation ((chemistry) a change directly from the solid to the gaseous state without becoming liquid)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Remove impurities from, increase the concentration of, and separate through the process of distillation

Example:

purify the water

Synonyms:

distill; make pure; purify; sublimate

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

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

ameliorate; amend; better; improve; meliorate (to make better)

Verb group:

distil; distill (undergo the process of distillation)

Domain category:

chemical science; chemistry (the science of matter; the branch of the natural sciences dealing with the composition of substances and their properties and reactions)

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

rectify; refine (reduce to a fine, unmixed, or pure state; separate from extraneous matter or cleanse from impurities)

purge (rid of impurities)

Sentence frames:

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

Derivation:

sublimate (the product of vaporization of a solid)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Make more subtle or refined

Synonyms:

rarefy; sublimate; subtilize

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

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

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Direct energy or urges into useful activities

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

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

airt; redirect (channel into a new direction)

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

desexualise; desexualize (direct one's libidinous urges into another direction)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

sublimation ((psychology) modifying the natural expression of an impulse or instinct (especially a sexual one) to one that is socially acceptable)

Credits

 Context examples: 

No, she was a spirit, a divinity, a goddess; such sublimated beauty was not of the earth.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Down below where he lived was the ignoble, and he wanted to purge himself of the ignoble that had soiled all his days, and to rise to that sublimated realm where dwelt the upper classes.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)