CORROSIVE • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Corrosive

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/kərˈoʊsɪv/ Listen

adjective

Corrosive adj.

Eating away; having the power of gradually wearing, changing, or destroying the texture or substance of a body; as, the corrosive action of an acid. "Corrosive liquors." "Corrosive famine."

Having the quality of fretting or vexing. "Care is no cure, but corrosive."

Corrosive sublimate (Chem.), mercuric chloride, HgCl2; so called because obtained by sublimation, and because of its harsh irritating action on the body tissue. Usually it is in the form of a heavy, transparent, crystalline substance, easily soluble, and of an acrid, burning taste. It is a virulent poison, a powerful antiseptic, and an excellent antisyphilitic; called also mercuric bichloride. It is to be carefully distinguished from calomel, the mild chloride of mercury.

noun

Corrosive n.

That which has the quality of eating or wearing away gradually. "(Corrosives) act either directly, by chemically destroying the part, or indirectly by causing inflammation and gangrene."

That which has the power of fretting or irritating. "Such speeches... are grievous corrosives."

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Etymology of 'Corrosive'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Corrosive" Quotes from Famous Books

... dancing through his veins. Standing fair in the midst of the ax-and-shovel havoc and clearing a wide circle to right and left with the sweep of his old service cavalry saber, was the Major, coatless, hatless, cursing the invaders with mighty and corrosive soldier oaths, and crying them to come on, the unnumbered host of ...

— The Quickening • Francis Lynde

... can be prevented.—[They cannot be "prevented." The most common cause is insect vermin. If these are found, burn all the old nests, use Persian powder freely on the birds, and paint the cracks in the cages with corrosive sublimate, and then varnish over ...

— Little Folks (Septemeber 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various

... from fluor spar and vitriolic acid, in silver or leaden vessels, the receiver being kept very cold during the distillation, it assumes the form of a dense fluid, and in that state is the most intensely corrosive substance known. This seems to be the acid combined with a little water. It may be called hydro-fluoric acid; and Sir H. Davy has been led, from some late experiments on the subject, to consider pure fluoric acid as a compound ...

— Conversations on Chemistry, V. 1-2 • Jane Marcet

... stern shoulder to shoulder, with the skipper in the middle, like three dirty owls, and stared at me," I heard him say with an intention of hate that distilled a corrosive virtue into the commonplace words like a drop of powerful poison falling into a glass of water; but my thoughts dwelt upon that sunrise. I could imagine under the pellucid emptiness of the sky these four men imprisoned in the solitude ...

— Lord Jim • Joseph Conrad

... and been buried by him at Versailles. On April 23 the body of the young de Lamotte was exhumed. Both bodies were examined by doctors, and they declared themselves satisfied that mother and son had died "from a bitter and corrosive poison administered in some kind of drink." What the poison was they did not venture to state, but one of their number, in the light of subsequent investigation, arrived at the conclusion that Derues had used in both ...

— A Book of Remarkable Criminals • H. B. Irving

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