ABSORBENT • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Absorbent

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/əbzˈɔrbənt/ Listen

adjective

absorbent adj. Absorbing; swallowing; absorptive.

Absorbent ground (Paint.), a ground prepared for a picture, chiefly with distemper, or water colors, by which the oil is absorbed, and a brilliancy is imparted to the colors.

noun

Absorbent n.

Anything which absorbs. "The ocean, itself a bad absorbent of heat."

(Med.) Any substance which absorbs and neutralizes acid fluid in the stomach and bowels, as magnesia, chalk, etc.; also a substance e. g., iodine which acts on the absorbent vessels so as to reduce enlarged and indurated parts.

pl. (Physiol.) The vessels by which the processes of absorption are carried on, as the lymphatics in animals, the extremities of the roots in plants.

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Etymology of 'Absorbent'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Absorbent" Quotes from Famous Books

... then, that all stars are suns with continuous spectra, and the classes are differentiated by the character of the absorbent vapours of ...

— History of Astronomy • George Forbes

... coated. When the upper leaf surface is hairy, we know that the plant is protected in this way from perspiring too freely. Doubtless these leaves of the steeple bush, like those of other plants that choose a similar habitat, have woolly hairs beneath as an absorbent to protect their pores from clogging with the vapors that must rise from the damp ground where the plant grows. If these pores were filled with moisture from without, how could they possibly throw off the waste of the plant? All plants are largely dependent upon free perspiration ...

— Wild Flowers, An Aid to Knowledge of Our Wild Flowers and - Their Insect Visitors - - Title: Nature's Garden • Neltje Blanchan

... than the mere sum of his abilities. Behind all the forces of the man, whether of body or of mind, there stands the soul, which uses them for purposes of its own, be they for better or for worse. And of these there is always one which in time becomes the absorbent of all its life, the essence of all its being; and such purpose is soon found in the life of every man who lives, and not merely exists; such purpose is soon found in the mightiest as well as in the frailest, ...

— Lectures on Russian Literature - Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy • Ivan Panin

... most transparent, are more or less absorbent of light. Take the case of water. A glass cell of clear water interposed in the track of our beam does not perceptibly change any one of the colours of the spectrum. Still absorption, though insensible, has here occurred, and to render it sensible we have only to increase ...

— Six Lectures on Light - Delivered In The United States In 1872-1873 • John Tyndall

... von Niessen[119] comprises the softening of the outer layers of the beans by steam, cold or warm water, or brine, and then surrounding them with an absorbent paste or powder, such as china clay, to which a neutralizing agent such as magnesium oxid may be added. After drying, the clay can be removed by brushing or by causing the beans to travel between oppositely reciprocated wet cloths. ...

— All About Coffee • William H. Ukers

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