▪ I. sublimate, n.
(ˈsʌblɪmət)
[ad. L. sublīmātum, neut. pa. pple. (used subst. in med.L.) of sublīmāre to sublime.]
1. A solid product of sublimation, esp. in the form of a compact crystalline cake.
| a 1626 Bacon Art. Enq. Metals (1669) 225 To enquire..what Metals endure Subliming; and what Body the Sublimate makes. 1694 Salmon Bate's Dispens. (1713) 359/2 In the other Part of the Neck you will have a kind of grey Sublimate. 1726 Dict. Rest. (ed. 3), Sublimate of Arsenick, is Arsenick corrected or freed from its more malignant Sulphurs, and rais'd to the top of the Matrass by the force of Fire. 1778 Pryce Min. Cornub. 34 The sublimate of our white Mundick..may produce..some of the best white Arsenick. 1819 tr. Berzelius in Ann. Philos. XIII. 405 The sublimate was pure selenic acid. 1820 Faraday Exp. Res. No. 13. 35 A sublimate of crystals filled the retort. 1869 Roscoe Elem. Chem. 246 Chromic chloride..is obtained as a sublimate, in beautiful violet crystals. 1894 Times 15 Aug. 12/2 The walls are nearly all covered by sublimates or dust that has adhered and crusted them over. |
b. fig. A refined or concentrated product.
| 1683 Norris Idea Happin. (1684) 27 Some have..grown mad with the Sublimate of Pleasure. 1872 Liddon Elem. Relig. iii. 92 Man's soul is not a third nature, poised between his spirit and his body; nor yet is it a sublimate of his bodily organization. |
2. ‘Mercury sublimate’; mercuric chloride (bichloride or perchloride of mercury), a white crystalline powder, which acts as a violent poison.
In early times also used for arsenic (cf. ratsbane 1).
| 1543 tr. Vigo's Chirurg. Interpr. (1550) AA a j b, Sublimate. Argentum sublimatum is made of Chalcantum, quycke⁓syluer, vyneger, and sal armoniake. 1594 Platt Jewell-h. i. 10 Suger is a salt, Sublimate is a salt, Saltpeter is a salt. 1605 Timme Quersit. i. vii. 26 White sublimate and arsnic..foster and hide a most burning and deadly fire. 1609 B. Jonson Silent Wom. ii. ii, Take a little sublimate and goe out of the world, like a rat. a 1661 B. Holyday Juvenal (1673) 122 Sublimate makes black the teeth; Cerusse makes gray the hair. 1789 W. Buchan Dom. Med. (1790) 513 To those whose stomach cannot bear the solution, the sublimate may be given in form of pill. 1842 Borrow Bible in Spain xvi, I have more than once escaped..having the wine I drank spiced with sublimate. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 605 A tar bath, with 15 gr. of sublimate added. |
| fig. 1633 G. Herbert Temple, Ch. Milit. 132 Nay he became a poet, and would serve His pills of sublimate in that conserve. 1896 tr. Huysmans' En Route iii. 37 To cleanse it with the disinfectant of prayer and the sublimate of Sacraments. |
b. Now usually corrosive sublimate, formerly † sublimate corrosive.
| 1685 Boyle Salubr. Air 64 Though Corrosive Sublimate be so mischievous a Mineral Composition, that a few grains may kill a man. 1703 Phil. Trans. XXIII. 1325 Sublimate Corrosive. 1842 Macaulay Ess., Fredk. Gt. (1851) II. 690 Pills of corrosive sublimate. 1874 Garrod & Baxter Mat. Med. 103 Calomel is apt to contain a trace of corrosive sublimate. |
c. sweet sublimate, blue sublimate (see quots.).
| 1725 Bradley's Family Dict. s.v., Sweet Sublimate is a Corrosive Sublimate, whose Points have been qualify'd by some Preparation. 1728 Chambers Cycl. s.v., Sweet Sublimate, is the same with Corrosive, only temper'd and sweeten'd by the Addition of Mercurius Dulcis. 1753 Ibid. Suppl. s.v., Blue Sublimate, a preparation of mercury with some other ingredients, yielding a fine blue for painting. |
d. attrib.: = containing or impregnated with corrosive sublimate, as sublimate bath, sublimate gauze, sublimate lotion, sublimate solution, sublimate water.
| 1753 J. Bartlet Gentl. Farriery xxv. 226 Touch with a caustic, or wash with the sublimate water. 1843 R. J. Graves Syst. Clin. Med. xxvii. 339 During the year 1827 the venereal patients took..302 sublimate baths. Ibid. Corrosive sublimate baths. 1895 Arnold & Sons' Catal. Surg. Instr. 726 Sublimate Gauze. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 870 The parts were then disinfected with sublimate lotion. |
3. Min. The deposit formed on charcoal or in a glass tube, when certain minerals are heated and subjected to the blowpipe.
| 1842 Parnell Chem. Anal. (1845) 262 Metals. Produce a sublimate on charcoal—antimony; arsenic [etc.]... Give no sublimate on charcoal—mercury; osmium. |
▪ II. † ˈsublimate, pa. pple. and ppl. a. Obs.
Also 5 -lymate, 6 -lemmat, 5, 7 -limat.
[ad. L. sublīmātus, pa. pple. of sublīmāre to sublime.]
A. pa. pple.
1. Raised, elevated, exalted.
| 1460 J. Capgrave Chron. (Rolls) 93 This man with sedicious knytis was sublimat in the empire. 1492 Ryman Poems vi. 7 in Arch. Stud. neu. Spr. LXXXIX. 175 O spowse of Criste immaculate, Aboue alle aungellis sublimate. 1603 Harsnet Pop. Impost. 111 According as they are improued, sublimate, and aduaunced by the authority of holy church of Rome. 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. Notes 15 Some of them were sublimat farre above earthly conceit. 1646 J. Saltmarsh Some Drops ii. 95 This is Perfection and Prelacy sublimate. |
2. Sublimated, distilled.
| 1471 Ripley Comp. Alch. iii. xiv. in Ashm. (1652) 142 Thy Water must be seven tymes Sublymate. |
B. ppl. a.
1. mercury sublimate (occas. sublimate mercury): = sublimate n. 2.
| 1562 W. Bullein Bulwarke, Bk. Simples 74 With this Quicke⁓siluer and Sal Armoniake, is made Marcurie sublemmat. 1610 B. Jonson Alch. ii. i, Mercury sublimate, That keepes the whitenesse, hardnesse, and the biting. 1697 J. Headrich Arcana Philos. 118 Sublimate Mercury. 1770 Phil. Trans. LX. 187 A composition of sublimate mercury,..will prevent insects..from destroying the plumage. 1799 G. Smith Laboratory I. 98 Ground and mixed with sublimate mercury. |
2. Refined, purified; elevated, sublime.
| 1607 R. C[arew] tr. Estienne's World of Wonders Ep. Ded., Others (of a more refined and sublimate temper) can sauour nothing but that which exceeds the vulgar capacitie. Ibid. 136 A most sublimate subtiltie. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 366 Offering her selfe more sublimate and pure, in the sacred name..of Religion. 1648 J. Beaumont Psyche x. lxv, So sublimate and so refining was That Fire, that all the Gold it turn'd to Dross. 1661 Glanvill Van. Dogm. 124 The corporeal Machine, which even on the most sublimate Intellectuals is dangerously influential. 1676 Hale Contempl. ii. Medit. Lord's Pr. 2 The most Exact Sublimate Wits inscribed their Altar, To the Unknown God. 1720 Welton Suffer. Son of God I. x. 231 A Love Sublimate and Refined. |
▪ III. sublimate, v.
(ˈsʌblɪmeɪt)
Also 7 -at.
[f. L. sublīmāt-, pa. ppl. stem of sublīmāre to sublime.]
† 1. trans. To raise to high place, dignity, or honour. = sublime v. 7. Obs.
| c 1566 Merie Tales of Skelton in S.'s Wks. (1843) I. p. lxii, He that doth humble hymselfe..shalbe exalted, extoulled,..or sublimated. 1631 Weever Anc. Funeral Mon. 868 Felix was..sublimated with an Episcopall Mitre. 1637 Bastwick Litany i. 17 Sometime, forty at once or more, are mounted and sublimated into the high Commission Court. 1637 Earl of Monmouth tr. Malvezzi's Rom. & Tarquin 214 They..would sublimate themselves [orig. accrescere volunt] contrary to the will of fortune. |
2. a. = sublime v. 1. Now rare.
| 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Sublimar, to sublimate. 1631 R. Brathwait Whimzies, Metall-man 62 Elevate that tripode; sublimate that pipkin; elixate your antimonie. 1651 Wittie tr. Primrose's Pop. Err. iv. iii. 221 Honey thrice sublimated. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey). 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade 365 Sublimate,..to raise volatile substances by heat, and again condense them in a solid form. |
b. gen. To act upon (a substance) so as to produce a refined product. Often in fig. context.
| 1601 Dolman La Primaud. Fr. Acad. iii. xc. 401 A maruellous kinde of naturall chimistrie..so to sublimate that which of it selfe is poison. 1638 Jackson Creed ix. xxiv. 169 None..would accuse an Alchimist..for wasting..copper, lead, or brasse, if hee could..sublimate them into pure gold. 1660 Brett Threnodia 12 Tis chymick heat in's bloud doth swim, T'wil sublimate terrestr'al him And so make of a Duke a Cherubim. 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) I. 134 The original plain principles of humanity..have, by a sort of spiritual chymists, been so sublimated, as to become the highest corrosives. 1747 Hervey Medit. II. 30 December's cold collects the gross Materials, which are sublimated by the refining Warmth of May. 1750 G. Hughes Barbados 32 The heat of the Sun..is so intense..that it sublimates their juices, salts, and spirits to a far greater degree of perfection. 1779 Johnson L.P., Milton (1868) 71 The heat of Milton's mind may be said to sublimate his learning. |
† 3. a. To extract by or as by sublimation; = sublime v. 2. Chiefly fig. Obs.
| 1614 T. Adams Physic Heav. Wks. (1629) 290 You that haue put so faire for the Philosophers stone, that you haue endeuoured to sublimate it out of poore mens bones, ground to powder by your oppressions. 1626 J. Yates Ibis ad Cæsarem ii. 33 Words ænigmaticall, sublimated in the furnace of his owne braine. 1644 Milton Areop. 9 It will be a harder alchymy then Lullius ever knew, to sublimat any good use out of such an invention. |
b. pass. and intr. To be produced as the result of sublimation.
| 1682 J. Collins Salt & Fish. 127 This Salt was formerly found sublimated upon the superficies of the burnt Sands of that Country. 1799 G. Smith Laboratory I. 327 The phosphorus, which in the receiver is sublimated of a yellowish colour. 1800 tr. Lagrange's Chem. I. 429 Towards the end of the operation, a little sulphur is sublimated. 1866 Lawrence tr. Cotta's Rocks Classified 74 Sulphur..sublimates in matrass. 1872 J. Yeats Techn. Hist. Comm. 321 Reducing the ore to powder, and afterwards by roasting it till the sulphur was sublimated. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 884 The chief part of this [morphia] literally burned and not sublimated at all. |
4. a. To exalt or elevate to a high or higher state; = sublime v. 4 c.
| 1599 B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. (1616) i. iii, Knowing my selfe an essence so sublimated, and refin'd by trauell. 1600 W. Watson Decacordon (1602) 97 A man in whose very countenance was pourtraid out a map of politicall gouernment.., sublimated with a reuerend maiestie in his lookes. 1614 Jackson Creed iii. iv. v. §8 This absolute submission of their consciences..sublimates them from refined Heathenisme or Gentilisme to diabolisme. 1673 Lady's Calling i. 32 This is it which sublimates and spiritualizes humanity. 1682 Lond. Gaz. No. 1711/4 Sedition and Rebellion, sublimated to the heighth, and as the very Extract of Disorder and Anarchy. 1781 Hayley Tri. Temper v. 288 Here grief and joy so suddenly unite, That anguish serves to sublimate delight. 1869 Lecky Europ. Mor. II. 295 Moral ideas in a thousand forms have been sublimated, enlarged and changed. 1884 A. J. Wilson Vashti x, Forced to lose faith in her..capacity to sublimate her erring nature. |
b. ironical.
| 1822 in W. Cobbett Rur. Rides I. 89 The unnatural working of the paper-system has sublimated him out of his senses. |
5. a. To transmute into something higher, nobler, more sublime or refined; = sublime v. 5.
| 1624 [Scott] Vox Regis To Rdr. p. iv, It expresseth strength to haue words sublimated into works. 1672 Sterry Serm. (1710) II. 275 Holiness exalts and sublimates a Man into Spirit. 1676 Hale Contempl. ii. 63 The Heart becomes..the very sink..of all the Impure desires of the Flesh, where they are..sublimated into Impurities, more exquisite [etc.]. a 1708 Beveridge Priv. Th. i. (1730) 159 By sublimating good Thoughts into good Affections. 1858 Froude Hist. Eng. IV. xviii. 59 Their understandings were too direct to sublimate absurdities into mysteries. 1884 Contemp. Rev. Feb. 262 Sublimating into an ideal sentiment what..had been little more than an animal appetite. |
b. intr. for pass. = sublime v. 5 b.
| 1852 G. Brimley Ess. (1858) 266 If Miss Rebecca Sharpe had really been..a matchless beauty,..she might have sublimated into a Beatrix Esmond. |
c. trans. in Psychoanalysis. To refine or direct (instinctual energy), esp. that of the sexual impulse, so that it is manifested in more socially acceptable ways. Also absol. and intr.
| 1910 J. J. Putnam in A. A. Brill tr. Freud's Three Contrib. Sexual Theory p. vii, The instincts with which every child is born..may be refined (‘sublimated’)..into energies of other sorts. 1916 C. E. Long tr. Jung's Coll. Papers Anal. Psychol. 141 Here we are confronted by an energetic effort to sublimate the fear into an eager desire for knowledge. 1921 R. Macaulay Dangerous Ages vi. 112 You have some bad complexes, which must be sublimated. 1953 J. Strachey et al. tr. Freud's Compl. Psychol. Wks. VII. 50 The perversions..—by being ‘sublimated’—are destined to provide the energy for a great number of our cultural achievements. 1967 M. L. King Trumpet of Conscience iv. 69 This rare opportunity for bloodletting was sublimated into arson. 1974 ‘S. Woods’ Done to Death 195 If she had guilt feelings..she might have sublimated them this way. |
| absol. and intr. 1933 J. Jastrow House that Freud Built vi. 136 We sublimate as we grow in psychic stature. 1955 H. Hartmann in A. Freud Psychoanal. Study of Child X. 12 Melanie Klein..equates the capacity to cathect ego activities with libido with the capacity to sublimate. 1973 H. McLeave Question of Negligence xxiii. 183 Some boy jilted her..thirty years ago. Now she sublimates like mad and expends all her pent-up emotion on her patients. |
6. To refine away into something unreal or non-existent; to reduce to unreality.
| 1836–7 Sir W. Hamilton Metaph. xxiii. (1859) II. 79 The materialist may now derive the subject from the object, the idealist derive the object from the subject, the absolutist sublimate both into indifference. 1867 Morn. Star 29 Jan., We are too much given to sublimate official responsibility until it becomes impalpable to ordinary senses. 1869 Lecky Europ. Mor. I. 342 While he..sublimated the popular worship into a harmless symbolism. 1910 W. S. Palmer Diary Modernist 264 A spiritual body is for him sublimated out of reality. |
Hence ˈsublimating vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1611 Cotgr., Sublimation, a sublimating, raising, or lifting vp. 1612 W. Parkes Curtaine-Dr. 41 O this body of ours..what time doe wee bestow in the garnishment of the same (and especially our woemen)..in Pomatums for their skinnes, in Fucusses for their faces, by sublimatinge, and mercury. 1840 Poe Balloon Hoax Wks. 1865 I. 97, I can conceive nothing more sublimating than the strange peril and novelty of an adventure such as this. 1913 E. Jones Papers on Psycho-Anal. xx. 416 (heading) The value of sublimating processes for education and re-education. 1923 J. S. Huxley Ess. Biologist vii. 276 Dominant ideas at work in the sublimating process. |