Crossword clues for efflorescence
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Efflorescence \Ef`flo*res"cence\, n. [F. efflorescence.]
(Bot.) Flowering, or state of flowering; the blooming of flowers; blowth.
(Med.) A redness of the skin; eruption, as in rash, measles, smallpox, scarlatina, etc.
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(Chem.)
The formation of the whitish powder or crust on the surface of efflorescing bodies, as salts, etc.
The powder or crust thus formed.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1620s, "a bursting into flower, act of blossoming out," from French efflorescence, from Latin efflorescentem (nominative efflorescens), present participle of efflorescere "to bloom, flourish, blossom" (see effloresce). Sense in chemistry is from 1660s.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context chemistry English) The formation of a powdery surface on crystals, as a hydrate is converted to anhydrous form by losing loosely bound water of crystallization to the atmosphere. 2 (context botany English) The production of flowers. 3 (construction) An encrustation of soluble salts, commonly white, deposited on the surface of stone, brick, plaster, or mortar; usually caused by free alkalies leached from mortar or adjacent concrete as moisture moves through it. 4 (context geology English) An encrustation of soluble salts, deposited on rock or soil by evaporation; often found in arid or geothermal environments. 5 (''metaphorical'') Rapid flowering of a culture or civilisation etc. 6 (context pathology English) A redness, rash, or eruption on the skin.
WordNet
n. the period of greatest prosperity or productivity [syn: flower, prime, peak, heyday, bloom, blossom, flush]
any red eruption of the skin [syn: rash, roseola, skin rash]
the time and process of budding and unfolding of blossoms [syn: blossoming, flowering, florescence, inflorescence, anthesis]
a powdery deposit on a surface [syn: bloom]
Wikipedia
In chemistry, efflorescence (which means "to flower out" in French) is the migration of a salt to the surface of a porous material, where it forms a coating. The essential process comprises the dissolving of an internally held salt in water, or occasionally in another solvent. The water, with the salt now held in solution, migrates to the surface, then evaporates, leaving a coating of the salt.
In what has been described as "primary efflorescence," the water is the invader and the salt was already present internally. Some people describe a reverse process, where the salt is originally present externally and is then carried inside in solution, as "secondary efflorescence." However, others would give this latter phenomenon another name entirely.
Efflorescences can occur in natural and built environments. On porous construction materials it may present a cosmetic outer problem only (primary efflorescence causing staining), but can sometimes indicate internal structural weakness (migration/degradation of component materials).
Usage examples of "efflorescence".
The presence of magnesium salts is also very objectionable, as these generally remain in the burnt brick as magnesium sulphate, which gives rise to an efflorescence of fine white crystals after the bricks are built into position.
This absorption in material things and evanescent affairs engenders in the spirit an arid atmosphere of doubt and denial, in which no efflorescence of poetic and mystic faiths can flourish.
This sort of slang, therefore, technical in origin, the natural efflorescence of highly cultivated agilities of brain, and hand, and eye, is worthy of all commendation.
With awe in their faces they discerned slowly revolving dark plates of steel, effulgent gouts of water glistening with momentary rainbows, sloppy and distended clods of wet sand, powder storms of dry sand, and billowing efflorescences of black smoke and orange flame.
She lived in a phosphorescent palace of many terraces, with gardens of strange leprous corals and grotesque brachiate efflorescences, and welcomed me with a warmth that may have been sardonic.