sublimation
Psychology. the diversion of the energy of a sexual or other biological impulse from its immediate goal to one of a more acceptable social, moral, or aesthetic nature or use.
Chemistry. the act, fact, or process of subliming.
a purification or refinement; ennoblement.
Origin of sublimation
1Other words from sublimation
- sub·li·ma·tion·al, adjective
- non·sub·li·ma·tion, noun
- re·sub·li·ma·tion, noun
Words Nearby sublimation
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use sublimation in a sentence
In some of these cold traps, the sublimation of CO2 ice slows to a crawl—at most a few centimeters of depth lost every billion years.
Pockets of frozen CO2 on the moon could fuel future space travel | Leto Sapunar | November 18, 2021 | Popular-ScienceThese embedded materials will eventually begin to release back into the air through sublimation and evaporation.
That new car smell? It’s got a gassy explanation. | Rob Stumpf | September 19, 2021 | Popular-ScienceWorse, their water could go straight from frozen to evaporated, a process known as sublimation.
New ideas on what makes a planet habitable could reshape the search for life | Lisa Grossman | August 30, 2021 | Science NewsThe conversation about happiness is from episode three, and the sublimation question is from episode four.
So I don’t know enough about sublimation to say whether what I do daily is an act of sublimation.
And that treatise of Van de Water, the Belgian, on the sublimation of the sub-conscious by the negation of the self-censor.
Personal experience, they say, means more to them than theory, even though the theory be the sublimation of all experience.
Dwarf Fruit Trees | F. A. WaughThe sublimation having been carried to a sufficient extent, the fires are allowed to die out.
The residuum consists of a violet-coloured powder, which, by sublimation, is converted into cinnabar.
It is then refined by a second sublimation, and melted into the masses in which it is commonly sold.
British Dictionary definitions for sublimation
/ (ˌsʌblɪˈmeɪʃən) /
(in Freudian psychology) the diversion of psychic energy derived from sexual impulses into nonsexual activity, esp of a creative nature
the process or an instance of sublimating
something sublimated
chem the process or instance or subliming
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for sublimation
[ sŭb′lə-mā′shən ]
The process of changing from a solid to a gas without passing through an intermediate liquid phase. Carbon dioxide, at a pressure of one atmosphere, sublimates at about -78 degrees Celsius. Ice and snow on the Earth's surface also sublimate at temperatures below the freezing point of water. Compare deposition.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Cultural definitions for sublimation (1 of 2)
[ (sub-luh-may-shuhn) ]
In Freudian psychology, a defense mechanism by which the individual satisfies a socially prohibited instinctive drive (usually sexual or aggressive) through the substitution of socially acceptable behavior. For example, someone with strong sexual drives who paints nude portraits may be engaging in sublimation.
[ (sub-luh-may-shuhn) ]
In chemistry, the direct conversion of a solid into a gas, without passage through a liquid stage. (See phases of matter.)
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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