hydrophobic, a. (n.)
(haɪdrəˈfɒbɪk, -ˈfəʊbɪk)
[ad. L. hydrophobic-us, a. Gr. ὑδροϕοβικ-ός: see prec. and -ic. Cf. F. hydrophobique (OF. ydroforbique).]
A. adj.
1. Of or pertaining to hydrophobia; suffering from or affected with hydrophobia.
| 1807 Med. Jrnl. XVII. 348 Out of these eleven, five died hydrophobic. a 1815 A. Fuller in Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. cxxxix. 14 The hydrophobic saliva. 1887 19th Cent. Aug. 200 The number of hydrophobic deaths. |
2. a. Tending to repel, or not to absorb, water; pertaining to such a lack of affinity.
| 1938 A. D. Whitehead tr. Jordan's Technol. Solvents i. 13 This group have a pronounced solvent power for non-polar or weakly polar, that is hydrophobic, materials. 1947 Jrnl. Res. Nat. Bureau of Standards (U.S.) XXXVIII. 106/1 It is common practice..to treat fabrics intended to be water repellent with various hydrophobic compounds. 1954 Kirk & Othmer Encycl. Chem. Technol. XIII. 919 With hydrophobic fibers, fabric structure to a large degree will control water repellency. 1963 [see hydrophil, -phile a.]. 1967 E. Chambers Photolitho-Offset xiv. 205 The image is oleophilic (ink-accepting) and hydrophobic (water-rejecting), making an excellent imaging material for an offset lithographic plate. |
b. spec. in Physical Chem.: applied to a hydrosol that readily forms a precipitate and on evaporation or cooling gives a solid that cannot readily be converted back into a sol.
| 1915 [see hydrophilic a. b]. 1948 Glasstone Textbk. Physical Chem. (ed. 2) xiv. 1235 Typical examples of hydrophobic sols are those of metals, sulfur, sulfides and sulfur halides. |
B. n. One affected with hydrophobia.
| 1864 Daily Tel. 3 Aug., The cruel superstition that a human hydrophobic can legally be smothered. |
So hydroˈphobical a. = prec.; hydrophoˈbicity, hydrophobic quality.
| 1650 W. Charleton Ternary of Paradoxes cxlviii. 77 The primitive and genuine Phansy of all the blood in the wounded body..compulsively assumes the Hydrophobicall phansy of the Exotick Tincture. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Hydrophobical. 1947 Jrnl. Res. Nat. Bureau of Standards (U.S.) XXXVIII. 105/1 The difference between these two energies will depend upon the relative humidity, the hydrophobicity of the surface,..etc. 1963 A. J. Hall Textile Sci. ii. 63 These newer fibres have several different and useful properties which are associated with their increased hydrophobicity. 1969 Nature 15 Feb. 637/2 A quantitative treatment for comparing the average hydrophobicities of proteins. |