Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Having the capability or tendency to cause corrosion: a corrosive acid.
- adj. Gradually destructive; steadily harmful: corrosive anxiety; corrosive increases in prices; a corrosive narcotics trade.
- adj. Spitefully sarcastic: corrosive criticism; corrosive wit.
- n. A substance having the capability or tendency to cause corrosion.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- 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.
- n. 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.
- To corrode.
- To act by corrosion.
Wiktionary
- adj. Eating away; having the power of gradually wearing, hanging, or destroying the texture or substance of a body; as the corrosive action of an acid.
- adj. Having the quality of fretting or vexing.
- adj. destroying or undermining something gradually
- n. That which has the quality of eating or wearing away gradually.
- n. Any solid, liquid or gas capable of irreparably harming living tissues or damaging material on contact.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Eating away; having the power of gradually wearing, changing, or destroying the texture or substance of a body.
- adj. Having the quality of fretting or vexing.
- n. That which has the quality of eating or wearing away gradually.
- n. That which has the power of fretting or irritating.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. spitefully sarcastic
- n. a substance having the tendency to cause corrosion (such a strong acids or alkali)
- adj. of a substance, especially a strong acid; capable of destroying or eating away by chemical action
Examples
“Prussia the corrosive influence (_la puissance corrosive_) of the empire.”
History of the Girondists, Volume I Personal Memoirs of the Patriots of the French Revolution
“He expects the same in the Gulf because of what he calls a corrosive social cycle.”
“Remington's new 887 polymer-encased shotgun also makes a lot of sense in corrosive conditions.”
What is more rust resistant stainless steel or the newer teflon coatings?
“But I * do* see a danger in corrosive criticism of the entire genre from people who really are opinion formers to the wider population.”
“Sama and Denosa warned that disregard for the pivotal role of the tertiary sector would have a medium to long-term corrosive effect at all levels on the quality of health care and training.”
“It is the long-term corrosive effects of the continuing breakdown in the system and society that ultimately compels an adversary to surrender or to accept terms.”
“While the economic and political distortions are deplorable, is pales in importance to another distortion that has a long-term corrosive effect on the very fiber of our economic system.”
“Sir Kevin said that the reductions had "a long-term corrosive effect on force structures".”
“Further studies will be conducted at the federal Sandia and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories to better understand and isolate the chemical emissions and to determine the long-term corrosive process.”
“Military chiefs privately described the effect of British operations in Iraq as "corrosive" - in terms of public support as well as their impact within the army itself.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘corrosive’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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In provocation
When exasperated, vexed or distressed.
bunkum, pananxiety, hokum, odor of sanctity, facade of strength, bumpkin, sardonic, Philistine, Vandal, dilettante, acerbic, acrid and 11 more...
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sophasaurus's list
tactile, facilitate, optimum, balk, release, drastic, galore, corrosive, bedevilments, fierce, deliberate, potential and 13 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6689 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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I do not like them, Sam I Am
Words that, for various reasons, I wish we could do without.
copacetic, gamut, horehound, lewd, membrane, metrics, mucous, mucus, negligee, nostril, odious, odor and 143 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
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Miss Sunshine
she's such a joy.
bereaved, bitter, cheerless, dejected, depressed, despairing, despondent, disconsolate, dismal, distressed, doleful, downcast and 405 more...
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Why We Curse: WTF?
This list collects the magnificent collection of vocabulary of the article "What the F***? Why We Curse," by Steven Pinker, in The New Republic (Oct. 2007). I think I'm more impressed with the coll...
curse, language, earthy, ancient, unthinkable, thinkable, emotional, rhyme, meter, alliteration, pleasure, metaphor and 196 more...
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collection
sanguine, vie, antebellum, glacial, treacly, iconoclast, lissom, anathema, serendipity, parsimonious, histrionic, contemptuous and 279 more...
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je les adore!
fusillade, foal, celestial, abattoir, byzantium, berlin, casablanca, babylon, balkans, albion, avalon, between the devil... and 471 more...
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NTDW1
template, modal, sublingual, tandem, polycentric, septuagenarian, token, irrevocable, denotive, augural, aberrant, phlebotomy and 1188 more...
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Faintheart's Words
onomatopoeia, no, terrafactive, word, faint, heart, joy, quixotic, karla, half, amp, tardis and 181 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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Webbie Debbie's
portend... omen.../whats to come
glum plumportend, sotto, azure, idly, glum, morose, sidelong, Mary Blair, rendering, dubious, winsome, humongous and 100 more...
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