Sublimate
verb
To change directly from a solid into a gas without becoming a liquid first.
Dry ice sublimates at room temperature.
Often appears as...
- sublimate at room temperature
- sublimate under pressure
Usage tips
Technical
verb
To improve or refine somebody or something.
She sublimated her raw anger into completing her project successfully
Often appears as...
- sublimate anger
- sublimate raw feelings
Usage tips
Formal, Approving
adjective
Of the highest quality, ideal.
The sublimate form of the chemical compound
Often appears as...
- sublimate form
- sublimate quality
Usage tips
Formal, Approving
Technical
verb
To change directly from a solid into a gas without becoming a liquid first.
Dry ice sublimates at room temperature.
Often appears as...
- sublimate at room temperature
- sublimate under pressure
Usage tips
Technical
verb
To improve or refine somebody or something.
She sublimated her raw anger into completing her project successfully
Often appears as...
- sublimate anger
- sublimate raw feelings
Usage tips
Formal, Approving
adjective
Of the highest quality, ideal.
The sublimate form of the chemical compound
Often appears as...
- sublimate form
- sublimate quality
Usage tips
Formal, Approving
Technical
Definition 1 of 3
Pro Tip 1/3Scientific Phenomenon
Used in scientific contexts to describe a physical change, often seen in chemistry.
Iodine crystals can sublimate when heated.
Pro Tip 2/3Literary Metaphor
Sometimes used metaphorically in literature to describe a transformation that skips stages.
His love for her sublimated into a passion for art.
Pro Tip 3/3No Intermediate State
Emphasizes skipping the liquid phase; not just any form of evaporation.
The snow on the mountaintop doesn't melt, it sublimates.
Pro Tip 1/3Scientific Phenomenon
Used in scientific contexts to describe a physical change, often seen in chemistry.
Iodine crystals can sublimate when heated.
Pro Tip 2/3Literary Metaphor
Sometimes used metaphorically in literature to describe a transformation that skips stages.
His love for her sublimated into a passion for art.
Pro Tip 3/3No Intermediate State
Emphasizes skipping the liquid phase; not just any form of evaporation.
The snow on the mountaintop doesn't melt, it sublimates.
Pro Tip 1/3Scientific Phenomenon
Used in scientific contexts to describe a physical change, often seen in chemistry.
Iodine crystals can sublimate when heated.
Pro Tip 2/3Literary Metaphor
Sometimes used metaphorically in literature to describe a transformation that skips stages.
His love for her sublimated into a passion for art.
Pro Tip 3/3No Intermediate State
Emphasizes skipping the liquid phase; not just any form of evaporation.
The snow on the mountaintop doesn't melt, it sublimates.
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Video examples
David Perry: Will...
video games actually allow us to become part of the machine. They allow us to sublimate into the culture of interactive, downloaded, streaming, HD reality. We are interacting with our entertainment. I have come to expect this level of interaction. Without it, the problems faced in the real world --
Video examples
Ray Kurzweil: Get ready...
and that's where we do our thinking, and it's the great sublimator. We still have that old brain that provides our basic drives and motivations, but I may have a drive for conquest, and that'll be sublimated by the neocortex into writing a poem or inventing an app
Video examples
Sending Humans to Mars:...
So the gases in the atmosphere were on a one-way trip to be oxidized and placed into minerals. So if you increase the amount of sunlight with mirrors, or whatever, you can sublimate, get more water vapor in the atmosphere, more rain. But what's going to happen?
Video examples
Imagining Pluto PIPE...
mile of ice over the edge of the solar system which is kind of interesting it means that when New Horizons flies by Pluto and takes closer pictures we might see what we call sublimation scarps so huge cliffs left from where the ice has
Video examples
TIL: How to Transform...
of options we could take asteroids and comets and send them hurtling into the Martian atmosphere and have them smash into the polar ice caps when you throw these asteroids and comets into these poles they'll cause them to sublimate
Video examples
How digital innovation...
Yeah, we found that, of course, humor implicitly means there is a sublimation of upsetness, of outrage. And so as you see, for example, in our premier's example, he makes fun of himself.
Video examples
Ben Katchor's comics of...
remained standing for the better part of a human lifetime. The temporary building is a triumph of modern industrial organization, a healthy sublimation of the urge to build,
Video examples
Susan Lim: Transplant...
at engrafting the gift of life at dusk. In my team, the lives of one or two of my colleagues were tainted by this experience. Some of us may have been sublimated,
Video examples
Coolest Concert Ever?...
it's one thing to build an ice instrument it's another thing to maintain it and use it throughout time the ice is always sublimating away into
Video examples
Jackie Tabick: The...
as part of me being made in the image of God. And I have to understand that my needs sometimes have to be sublimated to other needs.
Video examples
David Perry: Will...
video games actually allow us to become part of the machine. They allow us to sublimate into the culture of interactive, downloaded, streaming, HD reality. We are interacting with our entertainment. I have come to expect this level of interaction. Without it, the problems faced in the real world --
Video examples
Ray Kurzweil: Get ready...
and that's where we do our thinking, and it's the great sublimator. We still have that old brain that provides our basic drives and motivations, but I may have a drive for conquest, and that'll be sublimated by the neocortex into writing a poem or inventing an app
Video examples
Sending Humans to Mars:...
So the gases in the atmosphere were on a one-way trip to be oxidized and placed into minerals. So if you increase the amount of sunlight with mirrors, or whatever, you can sublimate, get more water vapor in the atmosphere, more rain. But what's going to happen?
Video examples
Imagining Pluto PIPE...
mile of ice over the edge of the solar system which is kind of interesting it means that when New Horizons flies by Pluto and takes closer pictures we might see what we call sublimation scarps so huge cliffs left from where the ice has
Video examples
TIL: How to Transform...
of options we could take asteroids and comets and send them hurtling into the Martian atmosphere and have them smash into the polar ice caps when you throw these asteroids and comets into these poles they'll cause them to sublimate
Video examples
How digital innovation...
Yeah, we found that, of course, humor implicitly means there is a sublimation of upsetness, of outrage. And so as you see, for example, in our premier's example, he makes fun of himself.
Video examples
Ben Katchor's comics of...
remained standing for the better part of a human lifetime. The temporary building is a triumph of modern industrial organization, a healthy sublimation of the urge to build,
Video examples
Susan Lim: Transplant...
at engrafting the gift of life at dusk. In my team, the lives of one or two of my colleagues were tainted by this experience. Some of us may have been sublimated,
Video examples
Coolest Concert Ever?...
it's one thing to build an ice instrument it's another thing to maintain it and use it throughout time the ice is always sublimating away into
Video examples
Jackie Tabick: The...
as part of me being made in the image of God. And I have to understand that my needs sometimes have to be sublimated to other needs.
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
Kathleen Rubins
American Astronaut
When you go to vacuum in the airlock and you take the hose off the front of your space suit, there's a little bit of water in there, and you can see that sublimate and ice crystals form and fly away. My thought at that moment was, 'Oh, we are not kidding at vacuum here; we are really in space.
Quote examples
Kenneth Oppel
Canadian Author
We used to flock to watch gladiators, public torture and executions. In more recent times, our appetite for mortal violence has been sublimated in sports, photorealistic video games, film and literature.
Quote examples
Salvador Dali
Spanish Artist
Mistakes are almost always of a sacred nature. Never try to correct them. On the contrary: rationalize them, understand them thoroughly. After that, it will be possible for you to sublimate them.
Quote examples
Joanne Harris
British Author
I sublimate different parts of my personality through my characters. Which is worrying, as some of them can be a bit nasty. I'm pleased the stuff on the page isn't inside me any more.
Quote examples
Anohni
English Musician
Rage is a really fun place to dance from - expressions of anger sublimated into something beautiful are invigorating, especially if you feel like you're telling the truth.
Quote examples
Andrew W.K.
American Musician
Music is a mysterious phenomenon - it seems both to magically overwhelm and sublimate our suffering, but also to starkly dignify the struggles of our daily life.
Quote examples
Robert Richardson
American Director
My career is based primarily upon finding a balance with a director and their vision, and that means sublimating my own personal ego toward their material.
Quote examples
Peter Steele
American Musician
Yes, there are times when I get extremely depressed and how I sublimate those feelings is through music.
Quote examples
Robert Hughes
Australian Critic
Transportation made sublimation literal. It conveyed evil to another world.
Quote examples
Monica Bellucci
Italian Actress
Being an actress is the sublimation of feminity.
Quote examples
Kathleen Rubins
American Astronaut
When you go to vacuum in the airlock and you take the hose off the front of your space suit, there's a little bit of water in there, and you can see that sublimate and ice crystals form and fly away. My thought at that moment was, 'Oh, we are not kidding at vacuum here; we are really in space.
Quote examples
Kenneth Oppel
Canadian Author
We used to flock to watch gladiators, public torture and executions. In more recent times, our appetite for mortal violence has been sublimated in sports, photorealistic video games, film and literature.
Quote examples
Salvador Dali
Spanish Artist
Mistakes are almost always of a sacred nature. Never try to correct them. On the contrary: rationalize them, understand them thoroughly. After that, it will be possible for you to sublimate them.
Quote examples
Joanne Harris
British Author
I sublimate different parts of my personality through my characters. Which is worrying, as some of them can be a bit nasty. I'm pleased the stuff on the page isn't inside me any more.
Quote examples
Anohni
English Musician
Rage is a really fun place to dance from - expressions of anger sublimated into something beautiful are invigorating, especially if you feel like you're telling the truth.
Quote examples
Andrew W.K.
American Musician
Music is a mysterious phenomenon - it seems both to magically overwhelm and sublimate our suffering, but also to starkly dignify the struggles of our daily life.
Quote examples
Robert Richardson
American Director
My career is based primarily upon finding a balance with a director and their vision, and that means sublimating my own personal ego toward their material.
Quote examples
Peter Steele
American Musician
Yes, there are times when I get extremely depressed and how I sublimate those feelings is through music.
Quote examples
Robert Hughes
Australian Critic
Transportation made sublimation literal. It conveyed evil to another world.
Quote examples
Monica Bellucci
Italian Actress
Being an actress is the sublimation of feminity.
Example 1 of 10
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