Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or relating to phlogiston.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or inducing inflammation or fever; inflammatory.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining or relating to phlogiston.
  • In medicine, inflammatory.

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

  • adjective (Old Chem.) Of or pertaining to phlogiston, or to belief in its existence.
  • adjective (Med.) Inflammatory; belonging to inflammations and fevers.

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

  • adjective Pertaining to phlogiston.
  • adjective Containing phlogiston.
  • adjective Inflammatory; belonging to inflammations and fevers.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • If the fire particles are separated, as by a prism, or if they enter the pores of certain phlogistic principles or particles of bodies, then color appears.

    The Creation of Color in Eighteenth-Century Europe 2006

  • Principle, which he named _Phlogiston_, and constructed an hypothesis which is generally known as the phlogistic theory.

    The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry M. M. Pattison Muir

  • 'phlogistic' -- had not even the honour of being refuted: they did not deserve to be so, and should be a warning to all those who would write upon a subject without the necessary practical knowledge.

    Evolution, Old & New Or, the Theories of Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck, as compared with that of Charles Darwin Samuel Butler 1868

  • Whatever will unite with _pure_ air, and thence compose an acid, is esteemed in this ingenious theory to be a different kind of phlogistic or inflammable body.

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

  • This is occasioned by the phlogistic vapours with which the air is always, more or less, impregnated; or to speak in the language of the Chymists of the present day, they become oxigenated by their union with the oxigen of the air.

    The Creation of Color in Eighteenth-Century Europe 2006

  • The "subtle and phlogistic" parts of this oil (a phlogiston-rich substance to begin with) can escape only by crossing the painting; on their way out they attach to and so alter the color. reference As the volatile parts continue to evaporate, the small portions of colors that are not built up close enough to each other lose their tone because the colors underneath transpire.

    The Creation of Color in Eighteenth-Century Europe 2006

  • These included a rapid technique for coloring linen or cotton involving orpiment (a highly phlogistic substance) dissolved in soapmakers 'lye.

    The Creation of Color in Eighteenth-Century Europe 2006

  • In your case, the phlogistic, or inflammatory element is abundant; if you will permit me to put it so, you generate superfluous oxygen, possessing as you do the inflammatory temperament of a man destined to experience strong emotions.

    The Magic Skin 2007

  • Rhazes, and of phosphorus by Bechil, are almost the only landmarks in the history of the science, until the discovery of oxygen and the destruction of the phlogistic theory by Priestley and Lavoisier, together with the introduction of the balance and the thermometer into the laboratory, rendered quantitative experiments possible.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 82, August, 1864 Various

  • There is nothing, my dear paternal Uncle, but one lambent, feverish fire, deliciously attractive, even in its angry heat, fascinating even whilst phlogistic, shooting out from every part of it, in all directions, into thine ----

    Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 104, April 22, 1893 Various

Comments

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  • "The headmaster turned to look again upon that which he could hardly abide: his life's work disintegrating in flames, with scant hope of phlogistic phoenix rising from its ashes."

    Under the Harrow by Mark Dunn, p 459

    September 4, 2011