diffluent, a.
(ˈdɪfluːənt)
[ad. L. diffluent-em, pr. pple. of difflu-ĕre to flow apart or away, f. dif-, dis- 1 + fluĕre to flow. Cf. mod.F. diffluent.]
Characterized by flowing apart or abroad; fluid; deliquescent. Also fig.
| a 1618 Sylvester Tobacco Battered 626 Yet over-moist [Brain], againe Makes it [Memory] so laxe, so diffluent and thin, That nothing can be firmly fixt there-in. 1642 Anne Bradstreet Poems (1678) 33 What's diffluent I do consolidate. 1647 Trapp Comm. Luke xvii. 8 A loose, discinct, and diffluent mind is unfit to serve God. 1811 W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. LXV. 228 Speech is confluent, rather than diffluent. 1851–9 Owen in Man. Sc. Enq. 365 Their soft organic substance is commonly diffluent. 1880 Gray in Nat. Sc. & Relig. 14 A formless, apparently diffluent and structureless mass. |