dissipate
/ˈdɪsɪpeɪt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.95 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To cause energy to be lost through its conversion to heat.
Example Sentences
- "August 1773, James Cook, journal entry I soon dissipated his fears."
- "The extreme tendency of civilization is to dissipate all intellectual energy."
- "The vast wealth […] was in three years dissipated."
- "So much for the effort and ingenuity of Montmartre. All the catering to vice and waste was on an utterly childish scale, and he suddenly realized the meaning of the word "dissipate"—to dissipate into thin air; to make nothing out of something."
- "If he prefers the bar he can exchange views with a Major de Wildman of Lord knew whose army, who calls himself King Farouk's equerry and claims to have a private telephone link to Cairo so that he can report the winning numbers and take royal orders inspired by soothsayers on how to dissipate the wealth of Egypt."
- "The traction motors serve as generators when dynamic braking is used, the generated output being dissipated in fan-cooled resistance banks mounted in a removable roof section."
Etymology
The verb is first attested in 1425, in Middle English, the adjective from 1606 to 1765; from Middle English dissipaten, from Latin dissipātus, perfect passive participle of dissipō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), also written dissupō (“to scatter, disperse, demolish, destroy, squander, dissipate”), from dis- (“apart”) + supō (“to throw”). Doublet of dissipe (“to dissipate”), now obsolete.
Origin
- Source language: Middle English
- First known use: first attested in 1425
Word Breakdown
- Root: dissipaten, dissipātus
Usage
Inflected Forms
dissipates (present, singular)
dissipating (participle, present)
dissipated (participle, past)
dissipated (past)
more dissipate (comparative)
most dissipate (superlative)