diffluence
(ˈdɪfluːəns)
[f. diffluent, or its L. source: see -ence. Cf. mod.F. diffluence.]
1. The action or fact of flowing apart or abroad; dispersion by flowing. Also fig.
| 1633 Fletcher Purple Isl. viii. xvi, Their violence 'Fore danger spent with lavish diffluence, Was none, or weak in time of greatest exigence. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Diffluence, a looseness, a flowing forth or abroad. 1816 G. S. Faber Orig. Pagan Idol. I. 292 Such a confluence and diffluence make, he supposes, the four heads mentioned by Moses. 1853 Reade Chr. Johnstone x. 128 The loose, lawless diffluence of motion that goes by that name [dancing]. |
2. Dissolution into a liquid state; deliquescence; spec. in Biol. the peculiar mode of dissolution or disintegration of Infusoria, called by Dujardin ‘molecular effusion’.
| 1847–9 Todd Cycl. Anat. IV. 712/1 Softening may vary from simple flabbiness to a state approaching diffluence. 1861 J. R. Greene Man. Anim. Kingd., Cœlent. 52 Such amœboid particles occasionally become detached by the method denominated ‘diffluence’. |