Definitions

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

  • noun The combination of a substance with oxygen.
  • noun A reaction in which the atoms of an element lose electrons and the valence of the element is correspondingly increased.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act or process of oxidizing, or causing a substance to combine with oxygen.
  • noun The act or process of taking up or combining with oxygen. Also oxidization, oxygenation.

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

  • noun (Chem.) The act or process of oxidizing, or the state or result of being oxidized.

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

  • noun The combination of a substance with oxygen.
  • noun chemistry A reaction in which the atoms of an element lose electrons and the valence of the element increases.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the process of oxidizing; the addition of oxygen to a compound with a loss of electrons; always occurs accompanied by reduction

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from oxider, to oxidize, from oxide, oxide; see oxide.]

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Examples

  • Of all the electron-grabbing elements, the most important is oxygen, so much so that chemists use the term oxidation to name the general chemical activity of grabbing electrons from other atoms, even if a chlorine atom is doing the grabbing.

    On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen Harold McGee 2004

  • Of all the electron-grabbing elements, the most important is oxygen, so much so that chemists use the term oxidation to name the general chemical activity of grabbing electrons from other atoms, even if a chlorine atom is doing the grabbing.

    On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen Harold McGee 2004

  • I'd also like to add that oxidation is also a problem in traditional Champagne winemaking because the still wine has to have low SO2 in order the second fermentation to move through successfully.

    What We Drank (6/16/09) 2009

  • I have heard that champagne musts are particularly high in laccase, an oxidation enzyme, so oxidation is always a problem in Champagne winemaking.

    What We Drank (6/16/09) 2009

  • Certain oxidation and reduction processes which, in contrast to salt formation and salt decomposition processes, proceed in finite, sometimes conveniently measurable times, seemed the most appropriate.

    Wilhelm Ostwald - Nobel Lecture 1966

  • Otto Warburg at Berlin-Dahlem, and here he became interested in oxidation enzymes, a subject to which he has given his attention ever since.

    Hugo Theorell - Biography 1964

  • After visiting the mills and the sheds where the process of oxidation is carried on, and admiring the metallic riches of these mountains, we left the hot and poisoned atmosphere, and walked up the mountains clothed with a hardy vegetation – with every noble tree and flowering shrub – and pursued our course till we came to a fine waterfall, which plunges from a great height over the gigantic rocks.

    Life in Mexico, During a Residence of Two Years in That Country Frances Erskine Inglis 1843

  • I don’t think they know that they prevent the wires from corroding and causing resistance at the splice because the spring in a wire nut holds the wires together so tightly that oxidation is prevented.

    Wiring Colors 2006

  • I don’t think they know that they prevent the wires from corroding and causing resistance at the splice because the spring in a wire nut holds the wires together so tightly that oxidation is prevented.

    Wiring Colors 2006

  • I don’t think they know that they prevent the wires from corroding and causing resistance at the splice because the spring in a wire nut holds the wires together so tightly that oxidation is prevented.

    Wiring Colors 2006

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