corrosive definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (14)

American Heritage Dictionary (4)

adjective Having the capability or tendency to cause corrosion: a corrosive acid.
adjective Gradually destructive; steadily harmful: corrosive anxiety; corrosive increases in prices; a corrosive narcotics trade.
adjective Spitefully sarcastic: corrosive criticism; corrosive wit.

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Century Dictionary (5)

Literally, eating or gnawing; hence, destroying as if by gnawing away; wearing away or disintegrating by separating small parts or particles, especially under chemical action, as of acids: often used figuratively of immaterial agents, as care, time, etc., absolutely or with of. The soft delicious air, To heal the scar of these corrosive fires, Shall breathe her balm. Milton, P. L., ii. 401. The sacred sons of vengeance, on whose course Corrosive famine waits. Thomson, Spring, l. 126. I should like, if I could, to give a specimen of their assumptions and the reasonings founded on them, which in my “Apologia” I considered to be corrosive of all religion. J. H. Newman, Contemporary Rev., XLVIII. 461.
Corrosive sublimate the bichlorid of mercury (HgCl₂), prepared by subliming an intimate mixture of equal parts of common salt and mercuric sulphate. It is a white crystalline solid, and is an acrid poison of great virulence. The stomach-pump and emetics are the surest preventives of its deleterious effects when swallowed; white of egg has also been found serviceable in allaying its poisonous influence upon the stomach. It requires 20 parts of cold water, but only 2 of boiling water, for its solution. It is used in surgery as an antiseptic, and in medicine internally in minute doses. It is also used to preserve anatomical preparations. Wood, cordage, canvas, etc., when soaked in a solution of it, are found to be less destructible on exposure.
Anything that corrodes, especially a chemical agent, as an acid; anything that wears away or disintegrates; figuratively, anything that has an analogous influence upon the mind or feelings. The violence of his disease. Francisco, Must not be jested with; 'tis grown infectious, And now strong corrosives must cure him. Fletcher, Wit without Money, iv. 1. Poverty and want are generally corrosives to all kinds of men. Burton, Anat. of Mel., p. 215. Corrosives are substances which, when placed in contact with living parts, gradually disorganize them. Dunglison, Dict. of Med. Science.

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The glue solidified and Chuntha sparked the magicked screw to higher rotation. — Conan the Indomitable
Evan stiffened, remembering previously observed secreters of dangerous acids, but this one didn't act like a corrosive. — Sentenced To Prism
"Couldn't have been anything corrosive or you'd know right off," he said. — I is for Innocent
It's highly corrosive, too. — Bloodhype
- — The Rockingdown Mystery

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flammable · toxic · acidic · deleterious · caustic · volatile · poisonous · reactive · harmful · hazardous · acrid · inflammable

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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= French corrosif = Provencal corroziu, corrossiu = Spanish Portuguese Italian corrosivo, from Middle Latin as if *corrosivus, from Latin corrosus, past participle of corrodere, corrode: see corrode. Cf. corsive.
from corrosive, n.

corrosive

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