disinteˈgration
[n. of action f. disintegrate v.: see -ation.]
The action or process of disintegrating, or the condition of being disintegrated; reduction to component particles, breaking up; destruction of cohesion or integrity. a. lit.; spec. in Geol., the wearing down of rocks by rain, frost, and other atmospheric influences; in Nuclear Physics, a process which a nucleus may undergo, spontaneously or under bombardment, in which it either emits one or more particles and becomes a different nuclide or else splits up into two or more smaller nuclei; also, the decay of an elementary particle; an instance of such a process. Also freq. attrib.
| 1796 Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. 96 By exposure to the air and moisture, it..chips and falls to pieces. This disintegration is remarkable, for it does not proceed solely from the absorption of water. 1808 Henry Epit. Chem. (ed. 5) 357 The disintegration of stones, consisting chiefly of alumine, is not easily effected by means of potash. 1834 Thomson in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club I. No. 2. 42 The disintegration of the clay-slate rocks. 1860 Maury Phys. Geog. i. 20 The wire wrapping of the Atlantic cable has been found in a state almost of complete disintegration. 1863 A. C. Ramsay Phys. Geog. iii. (1878) 34 The constant atmospheric disintegration of cliffs. 1874 Carpenter Ment. Phys. i. ii. §31 (1879) 30 When a Muscle is called into contraction, there is a certain disintegration or ‘waste’ of its tissue. 1903 Rutherford & Soddy in Phil. Mag. V. 446 The first stage in the disintegration of thorium is not directly into the emanation. Ibid. 583 Radioactive change can only be of the nature of an atomic disintegration. 1904 F. Soddy Radio-Activity viii. 121 The disintegration theory [of radioactivity] regards the property as due to a fixed proportion of the total number of atoms which are undergoing disintegration. Ibid. xii. 172 Consider the case of a disintegration series in which there is a parent element, A, disintegrating at an excessively slow rate. 1914 H. G. Wells World set Free i. §1, He set up atomic disintegration in a minute particle of bismuth. 1932 Cockcroft & Walton in Proc. R. Soc. A. CXXXVII. 229 (heading) The disintegration of elements by high velocity protons. 1933 Discovery June 179/2 This third hydrogen has been produced artificially in the Cavendish Laboratories in Cambridge, England, and at Princeton by the nuclear disintegration process. 1942 Ann. Reg. 1941 351 Fermi's theory of β-ray disintegration. 1942 Stranathan Particles viii. 348 Most atoms emit a γ-ray photon and pass to their normal energy states long before they undergo a subsequent nuclear disintegration. 1945 Electronic Engin. Sept. 668/1 The enormous energy which may in certain circumstances be obtained from a chain of atomic disintegrations. 1946 Nature 14 Sept. 373/3 The disintegration-rate..correctly specifies the strength of a radioactive source. 1949 Nucleonics Dec. 49 The curie shall be defined as that quantity of any radioactive species (radioisotope) undergoing exactly 3·700 × 1010 disintegrations per second. 1954 H. Semat Introd. Atomic & Nuclear Physics (ed. 3) xi. 362 A more accurate determination of the half-life of the radioactive disintegration of the neutron. |
b. fig.
| 1849 H. Martineau in Four C. Eng. Lett. 545 If the principles of social liberty should demand the disintegration of nations. 1865 Merivale Rom. Emp. VIII. lxviii. 355 The decay of moral principles which hastened the disintegration of Roman society. 1868 Gladstone Juv. Mundi i. (1870) 19 There are passages of ancient writers which tend to the disintegration of Homer. |
c. attrib. and Comb., as disintegration-scheme, disintegration-theory; disintegration constant, a measure of the rate of disintegration of a radioactive substance.
| 1865 W. Kay Crisis Hupfeld. 59 The principles on which the Disintegration-theory rests. 1926 R. W. Lawson tr. Hevesy & Paneth's Man. Radioactivity iii. 33 The half-value thickness is related to the absorption coefficient in the same way as the half-value period to the disintegration constant. 1962 H. D. Bush Atomic & Nuclear Physics iv. 75 Measurement of the change of activity with time enables the disintegration constant to be found. |
Hence disinteˈgrationist, an advocate of disintegration.
| 1884 Dunckley in Manch. Exam. 1 Dec. 6/1 Mr. Forster seems to them to be the great disintegrationist of our time. 1889 Spectator 3 Aug., Their own disintegration is a Nemesis upon the disintegrationists. |