- liquefy
- liquefy, melt, deliquesce, fuse, thaw are comparable when they mean to convert or to become converted to a liquid state.Liquefy, the general term, is applicable not only to solids but also to gases{
liquefy oxygen and nitrogen
}{liquefy a solid mass of ice
}{jellies liquefy if exposed to the air in a warm room
}Melt basically implies slow liquefaction, usually through heat; the term commonly suggests a softening, a loss of shape, and a running consistency{butter melts in a warm room
}{melt wax in a candle flame
}In its frequent extended use melt is applied to masses that are gradually dispersed or grow thinner or more tenuous and finally disappear{mountains beyond mountains melting away into remote sky— Binyon
}or to persons or their emotions or reactions that grow softer, gentler, or more tender{one whose subdued eyes, albeit unused to the melting mood, drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees their medicinal gum— Shak.
}{in Romeo and Juliet the profounder dramatist shows his lovers melting into unconsciousness of their isolated selves— T. S. Eliot
}{I cannot look up to your face. You melt my strength— Lowell
}or to tones, colors, and sounds that have a liquid quality and merge imperceptibly with others{snow-light cadences melting to silence— Keats
}{substance and shadow melted into each other and into the vastness of space— Glasgow
}Deliquesce implies a disappearing by or as if by melting away and applies especially to gradual liquefying through exposure to the air and the absorption of moisture from it{hygroscopic salts that deliquesce in moist air
}or to plant structures (as mushrooms) that liquefy in their decay{a great display of specimens [of fungi] that presently dried up or deliquesced and stank— H. G. Wells
}In its extended use deliquesce stresses loss of coherence rather than disappearance{Flaubert's instincts were less epical than lyrical, and drama itself was deliquescing into indeterminate forms— Levin
}{their lives tended to deliquesce into a murmuring indefiniteness of language— Matthiessen
}{thunderstorm had fused the electric mains— Finlay
}but more often it stresses union (as of two or more metals into an alloy) by or as if by the action of intense heat{foundries which fuse zinc and copper into hard, bright brass— Newsweek
}In its extended use, too, fuse stresses union{a ship, itself a little community in which people of various backgrounds are temporarily fused— Felix Morley
}{the strata fused together by heat— Livingstone
}Thaw may specifically replace melt in reference to something (as ice or snow) that is frozen or in extended use to something (as a cold heart, a cold disposition, or extreme reserve) equally stiff or rigid{the midday sun has thawed the ice on the roads
}{a lady . . . whose very looks would thaw a man more frozen than the Alps— Shirley
}{a native reserve being thawed by this genial consciousness— Hawthorne
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
