sublimate
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L328699 on Wikidata ↗verb
- to have a purifying, ennobling effect; to change chemical phases from solid to gas
adjective
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L340888 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈsʌblɪmeɪt/ / /ˈsʌblɪmət/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English sublymate, from Latin sublīmātus, past participle of sublīmāre (“to raise, elevate”).
- A product obtained by sublimation.
verb
Etymology: From Middle English sublymate, from Latin sublīmātus, past participle of sublīmāre (“to raise, elevate”).
- To heat (a substance) in a container so as to convert it into a gas which then condenses in solid form on cooler parts of the container.
- To heat (a substance) in a container so as to convert it into a gas which then condenses in solid form on cooler parts of the container.
- To refine (something) until it disappears or loses all meaning.
- To modify (the natural expression of a sexual or primitive instinct) in a socially acceptable manner; to divert the energy of (such an instinct) into some acceptable activity.
“Foreigners extol the American "energy" […] Basically it is the energy of violence, of free-floating resentment and anxiety unleashed by chronic cultural dislocations which must be, for the most part, ferociously sublimated. This energy has mainly been sublimated into crude materialism and acquisitiveness.”
“When he got home from the parade, however, Professor Solanka was seized by melancholy, his usual secret sadness, which he sublimated into the public sphere. Something was amiss with the world. The optimistic peace-and-love philosophy of his youth having given him up, he no longer knew how to reconcile himself to an increasingly phoney […] reality.”
- To obtain (something) through, or as if through, sublimation.
- To purify or refine (a substance).
“The precepts of Christianity are […] so apt […] to cleanse and sublimate the more gross and corrupt.”
- Synonym of sublime.
- Synonym of sublime.
- Of a substance: to change from a solid into a gas without passing through the liquid state, with or without being heated.
- Of a substance: to change from a gas into a solid without passing through the liquid state.
- To modify the natural expression of a sexual or primitive instinct in a socially acceptable manner; to divert the energy of such an instinct into some acceptable activity.
- Synonym of sublime (“to become higher in quality or status; to improve”).