English

Adjective

absorbent ‎(comparative more absorbent, superlative most absorbent)

1. Having the ability or tendency to absorb; able to soak up liquid easily; absorptive. [First attested in the early 18^th century.]^[1]

   Those paper towels were amazingly absorbent. That was quite a spill.

Derived terms

• absorbent ground
• nonabsorbent

Translations

Noun

absorbent ‎(plural absorbents)

1. Anything which absorbs. [First attested in the early 18^th century.]^[1]
   • 1839, Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, 1972, Forgotten Books, page 225,

     In the Southern Ocean the winter is not so excessively cold, but the summer is far less hot, for the clouded sky seldom allows the sun to warm the ocean, itself a bad absorbent of heat: and hence the mean temperature of the year […] is low.

2. (physiology, pluralized, now rare) The vessels by which the processes of absorption are carried on, as the lymphatics in animals, the extremities of the roots in plants. [First attested in the mid 18^th century.]^[1]
3. (medicine) Any substance which absorbs and neutralizes acid fluid in the stomach and bowels, as magnesia, chalk, etc.; also a substance, e.g., iodine, which acts on the absorbent vessels so as to reduce enlarged and indurated parts.
4. (chemistry) A liquid used in the process of separating gases or volatile liquids, in oil refining.

Translations

References

1. 1 2 3 Lesley Brown (editor), The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 5th edition (Oxford University Press, 2003 [1933], ISBN 978-0-19-860575-7), page 9

Catalan

Adjective

absorbent m, f ‎(masculine and feminine plural absorbents)

1. absorbent

Noun

absorbent m ‎(plural absorbents)

1. absorbent

Related terms

• absorbir

French

Verb

absorbent

1. third-person plural present indicative of absorber
2. third-person plural present subjunctive of absorber

Latin

Verb

absorbent

1. third-person plural present active indicative of absorbeō