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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
diffuse
I.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
widely
▪ The ideology of royal power was already widely diffused in Charles's kingdom after centuries of Merovingian rule.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Critics believe that such action will diffuse the power of Congress.
▪ Many presidential candidates have used humor to diffuse criticism.
▪ The history of the house has been diffused through family legend.
▪ The wind quickly diffused any toxic vapors that may have leaked out.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Alternative energy technologies will be successfully diffused only if realistic assumptions are made about the real economic situation in the Third World.
▪ As solvent diffuses through the membrane, the increase in volume causes the diaphragm to move.
▪ Mental mistakes have diffused the greatest of teams with the most legendary of coaches.
▪ Obtainable under the proprietary name Chlordane, the toxin gradually works down into the soil diffusing into the soil atmosphere.
▪ Serum is placed into a circular-well area and allowed to diffuse into the agar forming antigen antibody complexes.
▪ The smoke will diffuse into other rooms and will get into carpets, drapes and clothing.
▪ This is why the method is often applied to soften and diffuse distant objects or hills, as in atmospheric perspective.
II.adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
more
▪ The return flow towards the centre of the wake is more diffuse.
▪ Brain functions become more diffuse in girls, whereas they take up specific locations in the heads of boys.
▪ Biotechnology spending has been more diffuse but it will get at least £100 million a year in government spending.
▪ The new leadership proved more diffuse - beyond the narrow confines of the traditional élite and professional classes - and younger.
▪ The second argument is more diffuse and therefore more difficult to counter.
▪ Sometimes, occupation-specific skills are called for; on other occasions, more diffuse skills are sought.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ The new opposition party continues to be a diffuse organization.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Even so, in the diffuse community which centred on the church there might be those willing to shelter him.
▪ Local application of platelet concentrates shows potential in treating diffuse mucosal haemorrhage due to thrombocytopenia.
▪ Of these 67 patients, most were cases of diffuse oesophageal spasm or hypertensive lower oesophageal sphincter.
▪ The diffuse energies and compulsions of the teenaged boy must be shaped into the constructive activities of manhood.
▪ The cold clouds seen at 100 micrometres are large and diffuse, evidently just beginning to condense under their own gravity.
▪ This is not to say that power in organizations has become so diffuse and fleeting that it is irrelevant.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Diffuse

Diffuse \Dif*fuse"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Diffused; p. pr. & vb. n. Diffusing.] [L. diffusus, p. p. of diffundere to pour out, to diffuse; dif- = dis- + fundere to pour. See Fuse to melt.] To pour out and cause to spread, as a fluid; to cause to flow on all sides; to send out, or extend, in all directions; to spread; to circulate; to disseminate; to scatter; as to diffuse information.

Thence diffuse His good to worlds and ages infinite.
--Milton.

We find this knowledge diffused among all civilized nations.
--Whewell.

Syn: To expand; spread; circulate; extend; scatter; disperse; publish; proclaim.

Diffuse

Diffuse \Dif*fuse"\, v. i. To pass by spreading every way, to diffuse itself.

Diffuse

Diffuse \Dif*fuse"\, a. [L. diffusus, p. p.] Poured out; widely spread; not restrained; copious; full; esp., of style, opposed to concise or terse; verbose; prolix; as, a diffuse style; a diffuse writer.

A diffuse and various knowledge of divine and human things.
--Milton.

Syn: Prolix; verbose; wide; copious; full. See Prolix.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
diffuse

1520s (transitive), 1650s (intransitive), from Latin diffusus, past participle of diffundere "to pour out or away" (see diffusion). Related: Diffused; diffusing.

diffuse

early 15c., from Latin diffusus (see diffuse (v.)).

Wiktionary
diffuse

Etymology 1 vb. 1 (context transitive English) To spread over or through as in air, water, or other matter, especially by fluid motion or passive means. 2 (context intransitive English) To be spread over or through as in air, water, or other matter, especially by fluid motion or passive means. Etymology 2

  1. Everywhere or throughout everything; not focused or concentrated.

WordNet
diffuse
  1. adj. spread out; not concentrated in one place; "a large diffuse organization"

  2. lacking conciseness; "a diffuse historical novel"

diffuse
  1. v. move outward; "The soldiers fanned out" [syn: spread, spread out, fan out]

  2. spread or diffuse through; "An atmosphere of distrust has permeated this administration"; "music penetrated the entire building" [syn: permeate, pervade, penetrate, interpenetrate, imbue]

  3. cause to become widely known; "spread information"; "circulate a rumor"; "broadcast the news" [syn: circulate, circularize, circularise, distribute, disseminate, propagate, broadcast, spread, disperse, pass around]

Usage examples of "diffuse".

The secretion with animal matter in solution is then drawn by capillary attraction over the whole surface of the leaf, causing all the glands to secrete and allowing them to absorb the diffused animal matter.

Of the dark world, ten thousand spheres diffuse Their lustre through its adamantine gates.

The doctrine of Mulder, so widely diffused in popular and scientific belief, of the existence of a common base of all albuminous substances, the so-called protein, has not stood the test of rigorous analysis.

How could such an attempt succeed, Henle well asks, at a time when the most extensively diffused of all the tissues, the areolar, was not at all understood?

Their negative will is diffused throughout all the individuals, whereas the will of Japan is concentrated and articulated into a nation-bearing stratum.

The broken army of the Goths abandoned the field of battle, the wasted province, and the passage of the Danube: and although the eldest of the sons of Constantine was permitted to supply the place of his father, the merit of the victory, which diffused universal joy, was ascribed to the auspicious counsels of the emperor himself.

The flower-beds were edged with box, which diffused around it that dreamy balsamic odor, full of antenatal reminiscences of a lost Paradise, dimly fragrant as might be the bdellium of ancient Havilah, the land compassed by the river Pison that went out of Eden.

It had been occupied by a powerful colony of Gauls, who, settling themselves along the banks of the Po, from Piedmont to Romagna, carried their arms and diffused their name from the Alps to the Apennine.

For in this grievous calamity, this distressing bereavement, the best consolation and solace that the spiritual souls could offer is to dedicate themselves to the service of the Cause, to diffuse widely the sweet savours of holiness, to become wanderers in the path of that heavenly Best-Beloved, to let their whole beings burn and melt, and be enkindled with the fire of His love.

The sun-bright glare around the power capacitor began to diffuse outward as the casehardened metal alloy vaporized into superheated plasma.

Blanche Creamer, who had diffused herself over three-quarters of a sofa and beckoned him to the remaining fourth.

The sunlight dappling through the lattice warmed the cupric tones of her hair and reflected from the bodice of her white dress to radiate her face in a diffuse glow.

Glass may pass a laser beam through, but it tends to diffuse and deregister it, causing it to become more like ordinary light.

When she reached her bedroom, she pushed the dimmer switch, then turned it to diffuse the light.

The colonists, moreover, were encouraged in their spirit of resistance by the emigration of numbers who had lately left England, and who being disaffected persons, diffused republican sentiments in all the provinces.