- coagulate
- coagulate, congeal, set, curdle, clot, jelly, jell are comparable when meaning to form or cause to form a stiff mass that is solid or at least cohesive.Coagulate implies a thickening or solidification of a liquid and usually the making insoluble (as by chemical reaction) of something that was soluble{
fresh blood exposed to air rapidly coagulates
}{heat coagulates the white of egg
}{water- borne impurities which coagulate when aluminum sulfate is added can be removed by filtration
}Congeal specifically implies a thickening or solidification by means of cold; the mass thus affected may dissolve or become liquid when the temperature rises again{freezing temperatures have congealed the surface waters of the river
}{here no hungry winter congeals our blood— Longfellow
}Set (see also SET) carries no implication of how the stiffening, or making solid or viscid, occurs but only of the nature of the effect{rennet may be used in setting milk for cheese
}{give the jelly time to set before adding a paraffin cover
}Curdle basically implies the coagulation of milk (as through souring or the addition of rennet) into a soft but solid part (the curd) from which cheese is made, and the separation of this part from the watery part (the whey); in more general use the term connotes a thickening and sometimes a souring{Mark Twain was expressing his true opinions, the opinions of the cynic he had become owing to . . . the constant curdling as it were of the poet in him— Brooks
}{envy soon curdles into hate— Froude
}Clot implies the coagulation or congealing of a liquid into lumps or masses or, less often, the gathering of something light and diffuse into hard accumulations or lumps{the blood not yet had clotted on his wound— Southey
}{clotted cream
}{the bed becomes uneasy by the feathers clotting together into hard knobs— Tucker
}Jelly specifically implies the setting during cooling of a cooked liquid (as broth or juice of meats) containing gelatin from animal tissue or one (as fruit juice and sugar) containing the pectin of acid fruits{the jellied juice of the veal roast
}{jellies and marmalades jelly readily if pectin is added to the boiling juice
}Jell is basically identical to jelly{the jelly won't jell— Alcott
}but unlike the latter it is often used especially in negative constructions to imply the state when nonmaterial things (as ideas or plans) attain fixity or cohesiveness{public opinion has not yet jelled on this question
}{his ideas for the story would not jell, no matter how much he kept turning them over in his mind
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
