Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To cause to spread out freely.
- intransitive verb To make known to or cause to be used by large numbers of people; disseminate.
- intransitive verb To make less brilliant; soften.
- intransitive verb To make less intense; weaken.
- intransitive verb Physics To cause to undergo diffusion.
- intransitive verb To become widely dispersed; spread out.
- intransitive verb Physics To undergo diffusion.
- adjective Widely spread or scattered; not concentrated.
- adjective Wordy or unclear: synonym: wordy.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To pour out and spread, as a fluid; cause to flow and spread.
- To spread abroad; scatter; send out or extend in all directions.
- Synonyms To scatter, disseminate, circulate, disperse, distribute, propagate.
- To spread, as a fluid, by the wandering of its molecules in amongst those of a contiguous fluid.
- Widely spread or diffused; extended; dispersed; scattered.
- Specifically
- In pathology, spreading widely and having no distinctively defined limits: as, a diffuse inflammation or suppuration: opposed to circumscribed.
- In boto, spreading widely and loosely.
- In embryology, applied to a form of non-deciduate placenta in which the fetal villi form a broad belt.
- In zoology, sparse; few and scattered, as markings; especially, in entomology, said of punctures, etc., when they are less thickly set than on a neighboring part from which they appear to be scattered off.
- Prolix; using many words; verbose; rambling: said of speakers and writers or their style.
- Hard to understand; perplexing; requiring extended effort.
- Synonyms Loose, rambling, wordy, long-winded, diluted, spun out.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To pour out and cause to spread, as a fluid; to cause to flow on all sides; to send out, or extend, in all directions; to spread; to circulate; to disseminate; to scatter; as to
diffuse information. - adjective Poured out; widely spread; not restrained; copious; full; esp., of style, opposed to
concise orterse ; verbose; prolix - intransitive verb To pass by spreading every way, to diffuse itself.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To
spread over or through as inair ,water , or other matter, especially byfluid motion orpassive means. - verb intransitive To be
spread over or through as inair ,water , or other matter, especially byfluid motion orpassive means. - adjective Everywhere or throughout everything; not
focused orconcentrated .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb move outward
- adjective lacking conciseness
- adjective (of light) transmitted from a broad light source or reflected
- verb spread or diffuse through
- verb cause to become widely known
- adjective spread out; not concentrated in one place
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Examples
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This crisis has arisen, the Prof says, because intensive cultivation has given rise to an upward trend in "diffuse" pollution from nitrates and phosphates which is proving difficult to reverse.
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The object is felt to say something succinctly and forcibly that the inner vision reports vaguely, in diffuse feeling rather than organically.
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DESCRIPTION: Also called St. Anthony's Fire, erysipelas is characterized by diffuse inflammation of the skin, or of the subcutaneous cellular tissue, usually with accompanying fever.
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And in 1995, with Mike Jura at UCLA, we published a paper suggesting that if it was in space, it should be responsible for some very puzzling features that have been known for 90 years called the diffuse interstellar bands.
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How about the definition for the word diffuse, courtesy of Dictionary. com?
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There are theories that Marie may have had a medical condition termed diffuse alopecia areata, which can result in sudden hair loss.
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We can see similar processes taking place today in so-called diffuse nebulae in this and other galaxies - such as the nebula M16, shown above left.
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So it's very common, and the manifestations are very diffuse, which is one of the main reasons why it is so underdiagnosed in this country.
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Gross was able to collect but 18 examples; but closely allied to this condition is what is known as diffuse hypertrophy of the breast.
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But if the book were being published this month, instead of last month, the term would be '99 percenters,' referring to the diffuse, leaderless resistance movement's statement: 'The one thing we all have in common is that we are the 99 percent that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 percent.'
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