▪ I. deliquium1 arch.
(dɪˈlɪkwɪəm)
[L. dēliquium failure, want, f. dēlinquĕre (dēliqu-): see delinque, delict, and cf. delique.]
1. Failure of the vital powers; a swoon, fainting fit. Also fig.
| [1597 J. King On Jonas (1864) 180 (Stanf.) His soul forsook him, as it were, and there was deliquium animæ.] 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. iii. i. ii, He..carries Bisket, Aquavitæ, or some strong waters about him, for fear of deliquiums. 1681 Glanvill Sadducismus 14 Strange things men report to have seen during those Deliquiums. 1746 Brit. Mag. 102 He..was seiz'd with a sudden Deliquium. 1867 Carlyle Remin. (1881) II. 10 Jeffrey..bewildered the poor jury into temporary deliquium or loss of wits. |
† 2. A failure of light, as in an eclipse. Obs.
| 1647 Crashaw Poems 160 Forcing his sometimes eclipsed face to be A long deliquium to the light of thee. 1663 J. Spencer Prodigies (1665) 5 The strange deliquium of Light in the Sun about the death of Cæsar. 1671 Shadwell Humorists iii. 33, I have suffer'd a Deliquium, viz. an Eclipse. |
3. Confused with deliquium2, as if = melting away, or state of having melted away: usually fig.
| a 1711 Ken Psyche Poet. Wks. 1721 IV. 281 Her Pow'rs in Liquefaction soft exhal'd, She into amorous Deliquium falls. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. (1857) I. i. vii. viii. 212 The Assembly melts, under such pressure, into deliquium; or, as it is officially called, adjourns. 1858 ― Fredk. Gt. (1865) I. iv. v. 312 Stalwart sentries were found melted into actual deliquium of swooning. |
▪ II. † deˈliquium2 Obs.
[L. dēliquium flowing down, dropping down, f. dēliquāre: see deliquate.]
= deliquescence.
| 1641 French Distill. i. (1651) 9 Deliquium, is the dissolving of a hard body into a liquor, as salt..in a moist, cold place. 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 407 Death is a preparing Deliquium, or melting us down into a Menstruum, fit for the Chymistry of the Resurrection to work on. 1727–51 Chambers Cycl. s.v., Salt of tartar, or any fixed alcali, set in a cellar..runs, into a kind of liquor, called by the chymists, oil of tartar per deliquium. 1823 J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 46 As much hot oil of tartar, per deliquium, as will saturate the acid. |