Definition of "sublimate" [sub•li•mate]

• Chemistry To cause (a solid or gas) to change state without becoming a liquid. (verb-transitive)
• To modify the natural expression of (a primitive, instinctual impulse) in a socially acceptable manner. (verb-transitive)
• To divert the energy associated with (an unacceptable impulse or drive) into a personally and socially acceptable activity. (verb-transitive)
• Chemistry To transform directly from the solid to the gaseous state or from the gaseous to the solid state without becoming a liquid. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "By Joerg Colberg on January 28, 2004 5: 36 PM sublimate is one of those weblogs that I should have linked to a long time ago. coincidences"
• "And I believe that when corrosive sublimate is slow in taking hold, alternate dressings of peroxide of hydrogen are just the thing."
• "Calomel is often given as a medicine, but not so with corrosive sublimate, which is usually employed in the arts as a poison."