sublimate
/ˈsʌblɪmeɪt/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.00 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
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.
Transitive verb
verb
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.
Transitive verb
verb
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.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "The precepts of Christianity are […] so apt […] to cleanse and sublimate the more gross and corrupt."
Etymology
From Middle English sublymate, from Latin sublīmātus, past participle of sublīmāre (“to raise, elevate”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: sublymate, sublīmātus