Pronunciations (4)
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/ˌɛfləˈɹɛs/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/ˌɛfləˈɹɛs/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
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ˌɛfləˈɹɛs
Pronunciation notes
- GB
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ˌɛfləˈɹɛs
Pronunciation notes
- US
Verb
To burst into bloom; to flower.
Usage- Intransitive
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More examples (2)
The genus isis, or coral, in the order of zoophytes, or composite animals, efflorescing like vegetables, is an animal in the form of a plant, with a stony stem, jointed, and the joints longitudinally channelled, united by spongy or horny junctures, covered by a soft porous cellular flesh or bark, and having a mouth beset with oviparous polypes.
Human societies have effloresced to levels of extreme complexity because their members have the intelligence and flexibility to play roles of virtually any degree of specification, and to switch them as the occasion demands.
Of something hidden: to come forth, to emerge; also, to reach full glory or power.
Usage- Figurative
- Intransitive
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More examples (5)
These [God's promises], implanted in the soul of David, effloresced in the Psalms to that luxuriance and fruitfulness which have made them the delight and nourishment of all succeeding ages of the church, [...]
No more in tears / She lingers 'mong the years, / No more she watcheth through the lonesome night; / Her night is past, / No shadow on her cast, / She effloresceth 'mong the flowers in light.
Ferdinand de Saussure, who died in 1913 at the age of 55, sowed the seeds of structuralist thought that first took root in linguistics, then effloresced throughout the 20th century in fields as seemingly distinct as literary criticism, architecture, social anthropology and psychoanalysis.
The Poetics is the origin of the notions that have turned the Greek form τραγῳδία, which flourished in Athens in the fifth century BC, into the modern genre of tragedy, which has effloresced in various times and places throughout Western cultures of the last half millennium.
I sense a portent inflating / an unlikely fellowship forming / and yet as swiftly as communion effloresced, / they leave, / pedalling into the distance / on their restored velocipede.
Senses relating to chemistry. Of a substance: to change from being crystalline to powdery by losing water of crystallization.
Usage- Intransitive
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More examples (3)
This is the very caſe with the Pyrites that conſiſt only of iron and ſulphur; yet ſome of them, as we ſaid before, do not effloreſce ſpontaneouſly and turn to Vitriol.
The ſame alkali, diſſolved in water, previouſly ſaturated with air, produces by cryſtallization ſimilar figures; theſe cryſtals neither deliqueſce in moiſt air, nor effloreſce in dry, but always retain their tranſparency: [...]
Sub-borate of soda crystallizes in prisms with six irregular sides. It effloresces in the air. It fuses when ignited; loses its water of crystallization; and leaves a glass, which is transparent when cold, and which is of great use in experiments with the blow-pipe.
The baryta-salt dried up to a gummy mass, but after a while swelled up in cauliflower-like tufts, which effloresced and fell to pieces on exposure to the air.
When exposed to air at ordinary temperatures it [disodium phosphate] effloresces, forming the less soluble heptahydrate.
Senses relating to chemistry. Of a salt: to seep through some material (bricks, concrete, earth, rock, etc.) in a dissolved state, and then crystallize on a surface in a powdery form.
Usage- Intransitive
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More examples (1)
The ſalts which effloreſce from old walls, are nitre more or leſs pure, quadrangular nitre, mineral alkali in abundance, more or leſs pure, and mixed with calcareous earth; [...]
It [sodium sulphate] exists likewise native in mineral springs, and sometimes it effloresces on the walls of old buildings.
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N. Cubicum. Fixed, when dissolved and evaporated, concreting into rhombic crystals. Found, though rarely, in caves with the last, efflorescing from the moist sides of walls.
The earth-salt was made in what were known as "modas," which were peculiar to the Ceded districts and were especially common in Bellary. [...] Salt-earth was collected in the places where it effloresced naturally in the dry months and taken to the moda on pack-buffaloes.
Na carbonate, with limited solubility, dissolves only about 150g/l and therefore tends to effloresce, while the K carbonate dissolves ten times more (1100g/l), forming white efflorescence; [...]
Senses relating to chemistry. Of the surface of a material: to become covered with a powdery salt (as described in sense 3.2).
Usage- Intransitive
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More examples (1)
In the country about Rome there is a very hard ſtone, which is hewn out of the quarry juſt like other ſtones for building: this ſtone yields a great deal of Alum. In order to extract it, the ſtones are calcined for twelve or fourteen hours; after which they are expoſed to the air in heaps, and carefully watered three or four times a day for forty days together. In that time they begin to effloreſce, and to throw out a reddiſh matter on their ſurface.
This ſtone is perpetually effloreſcing, and forming the ſalt called Sulphate of Iron: vulgarly, Copperas.
More examples (1)
[W]e have seen aluminum parts exposed to magnesium chloride (a common road salt in the northern states and Canada) effloresce so badly they resembled a blossoming, metallic flower!
Verb
come into or as if into flower
- Synonyms
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These manifestations effloresced in the past
assume crystalline form; become crystallized
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
become encrusted with crystals due to evaporation