English

Verb

deliquesce ‎(third-person singular simple present deliquesces, present participle deliquescing, simple past and past participle deliquesced)

1. (intransitive) To melt and disappear.
   • 1895, H. G. Wells, The Time Machine Chapter VIII

     Exploring, I found another short gallery running transversely to the first. This appeared to be devoted to minerals, and the sight of a block of sulphur set my mind running on gunpowder. But I could find no saltpeter; indeed no nitrates of any kind. Doubtless they had deliquesced ages ago. Yet the sulphur hung in my mind and set up a train of thinking. As for the rest of the contents of that place, though on the whole they were the best preserved of all I saw—I had little interest. I am no specialist in mineralogy, and I soon went on down a very ruinous aisle running parallel to the first hall I had entered.

2. (intransitive, chemistry) To become liquid by absorbing water from the atmosphere.

Related terms

• deliquescence
• deliquescent