Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Turning sour; becoming tart or acid by spontaneous decomposition, as vegetable or animal juices or infusions; hence, slightly sour; acidulous; subacid.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A substance liable to become sour.
  • adjective Turning sour; readily becoming tart or acid; slightly sour.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Turning sour; readily becoming tart or acid; slightly sour.
  • noun A substance liable to become sour.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin acescens, acescentis, present participle of acescere to turn sour; inchoative of acere to be sour: compare French acescent. See acid

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word acescent.

Examples

  • Being cut into pieces, and pressed close in a tub with aromatic herbs and salt, so as to undergo an acescent fermentation (which is [75] arrested at that stage), Cabbages form the German _Saurkraut_, which is strongly recommended against scurvy.

    Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure William Thomas Fernie

  • A common cause of cramp is indigestion, and the use of acescent liquors; these should be avoided.

    Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889 Barkham Burroughs

  • His first thought was to throw it away; but, his master coming up, he mixed this now acescent dough with some fresh dough, which he was working at.

    The Book of Household Management Isabella Mary 1861

  • His first thought was to throw it away; but, his master coming up, he mixed this now acescent dough with some fresh dough, which he was working at.

    The Book of Household Management Isabella Mary 1861

  • Thus in paste composed of flour and water, which has been suffered to become acescent, the animalcules called eels, vibrio anguillula, are seen in great abundance; their motions are rapid and strong; they are viviparous, and produce at intervals

    Note I 1803

  • I suppose when the stomach becomes inirritable, that there is at the same time a deficiency of gastric acid; hence milk seldom agrees with these patients, unless it be previously curdled, as they have not sufficient gastric acid to curdle it; and hence vegetable food, which is itself acescent, will agree with their stomachs longer than animal food, which requires more of the gastric acid for its digestion.

    Zoonomia, Vol. I Or, the Laws of Organic Life Erasmus Darwin 1766

  • Such is the construction of animal bodies, that all their parts, which are subjected to less stimuli than nature designed, perform their functions with less accuracy: thus, when too watery or too acescent food is taken into the stomach, indigestion, and flatulency, and heartburn succeed.

    Zoonomia, Vol. I Or, the Laws of Organic Life Erasmus Darwin 1766

  • Might not the covering the face assiduously and exactly with plasters, as with cerate of calamy, or with minium plaster, by precluding the air from the pustules, prevent their contracting a contagious, or acescent, or fever-producing power? and the secondary fever be thus prevented entirely.

    Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life Erasmus Darwin 1766

  • Thus in paste composed of flour and water, which has been suffered to become acescent, the animalcules called eels, vibrio anguillula, are seen in great abundance; their motions are rapid and strong; they are viviparous, and produce at intervals a numerous progeny: animals similar to these are also found in vinegar; Naturalist's Miscellany by

    The Temple of Nature; or, the Origin of Society A Poem, with Philosophical Notes Erasmus Darwin 1766

  • From these facts it appears that the flower-bud after the corol falls off, (which is its lungs,) and the stamens and nectary along with it, becomes simply an uterus for the purpose of supplying the growing embryon with nourishment, together with a system of absorbent vessels which bring the juices of the earth to the footstalk of the fruit, and which there changes into an artery for the purpose of distributing the sap for the secretion of the saccharine or farinaceous or acescent materials for the use of the embryon.

    The Botanic Garden A Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: the Economy of Vegetation Erasmus Darwin 1766

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • JM is becoming, or tending to be, an acescent person hater.

    October 5, 2010

  • We're carefree until we're pubescent,

    Ambitious until we're senescent.

    Our ripeness is fleet;

    Let's pray it be sweet

    Before we are old and acescent.

    April 12, 2016