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  1. quicksilver love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. See mercury.
  2. adj. Unpredictable; mercurial: "a quicksilver character, cool and willful at one moment, utterly fragile the next” ( Sven Birkerts).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. The common popular designation of the metal mercury. See mercury, 6, and mercurial.
  2. To overlay with quicksilver; treat with quicksilver: chiefly used in the past and present participles.
  3. n. A term popularly applied to the amalgam of mercury and tin on the back of a common mirror.

Wiktionary

  1. n. The metal mercury.
  2. n. colloquial An amalgam of mercury and tin applied to the backs of mirrors, quicksilvering.
  3. adj. Unpredictable, erratic or fickle; mercurial.
  4. v. To overlay with quicksilver.
  5. v. To treat with quicksilver.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Chem.) The metal mercury; -- so called from its resemblance to liquid silver.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. liable to sudden unpredictable change
  2. n. a heavy silvery toxic univalent and bivalent metallic element; the only metal that is liquid at ordinary temperatures

Etymologies

  1. From Middle English quyksilver, from Old English cwicseolfor. Literally "living silver" from its ability to move. See quick in the sense of living. (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English, from Old English cwicseolfor, living silver (translation of Latin argentum vīvum) : cwic, cwicu, alive; see gwei- in Indo-European roots + seolfor, silver; see silver. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

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‘quicksilver’ has been looked up 2699 times, loved by 6 people, added to 40 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 29.