deliquate means to cause (something) to melt away; to consume, to dissolve. It carries an Arena rating of 1606, earned across 12 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, deliquate ranks #1,334 of 12,803 for Scariest Words, #2,102 of 12,803 for The Improbable, #3,775 of 12,803 for Funniest Words, #3,917 of 12,803 for Most Beautiful Words.
deliquate is pronounced /ˈdɛlɪkweɪt/.
Why “deliquate” is a great word
To melt away or dissolve, either by causing dissolution or by undergoing it. First attested in 1617, borrowed from Latin dēliquātus, the perfect passive participle of dēliquō ("to clarify, to skim a liquid"). Unlike "deliquesce," which describes a solid greedily drinking moisture from the air, or the common "dissolve," a straightforward mixing into solvent, "deliquate" is the broader, archaic whisper of a total, often passive, surrender. It is the slow wasting of a sugar-lump in a steaming cup, the soundless recession of a candle into a pool of wax, or the gradual erosion of a resolve under constant pressure—the quiet, irrevocable act of becoming liquid, becoming less, becoming gone.
Etymology
First attested in 1617; borrowed from Latin dēliquātus, perfect passive participle of dēliquō (“to clarify, skim a liquid”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix).
verb
- To cause (something) to melt away; to consume, to dissolve.
- To melt or be dissolved; to deliquesce.“I caus'd an unuſual Brine to be made, by ſuffering Sea-ſalt to deliquate in the moiſt Air.”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- deliquiate 91% match — To melt and become liquid by absorbing water from the air; to deliquesce.
- liquesce 87% match — To become a liquid; to liquefy.
- colliquefaction 86% match — A melting together; the reduction of different bodies into one mass by fusion.
- delibate 85% match — To taste; to take a sip of.
- desiccate 84% match — To remove moisture from; to dry; (sometimes) to dry to an extreme degree.
- irrorate 84% match — To sprinkle or moisten with dew; to bedew.
- ruinate 83% match — To reduce to ruins; to destroy.
- debellate 83% match — To conquer (someone) in war; to subdue.