dissolve

Formsdissolves, dissolving, dissolved

Pluraldissolves

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To cause a substance to disintegrate chemically into a solution by immersing it in a liquid or other material.

   Acids can dissolve certain metals, releasing hydrogen gas in the process.

   The solvent dissolved the polymer completely within a few minutes.

   Oppositeprecipitate, crystallize

   Note

   Chemistry's core meaning describes a solute dispersing through a solvent at the molecular or ionic level until the mixture is uniform, which is a solution. The construction is dissolve X in Y. Harry E. Wedeck's Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs (1961) supplies a famous case: the legend that Cleopatra would dissolve pearls in vinegar and drink the fluid.

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To break down and pass into a solution when immersed in a liquid or other material.

   Salt dissolves readily in water at room temperature.

   These crystals dissolve slowly unless the liquid is heated.

   Oppositeprecipitate, crystallize

   Note

   The same process is seen here from the substance's side. Salt, sugar or crystals become the subject, and the liquid follows in an in-phrase. Adverbs of speed attach naturally, as in dissolves readily or dissolves slowly, because how easily something goes into solution is usually the point. Its transitive partner is the chemist's causative use.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To destroy something or cause it to disappear entirely.

   The verdict dissolved any hope the family had been holding onto.

   Nothing could dissolve the bond between the two old friends.

   Similardispel, shatter, destroy, dash, crush

   Oppositestrengthen, cement

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To bring an organized body or formal union to an end, as by disbanding it.

   The board agreed to dissolve the partnership at the end of the year.

   A monarch could once dissolve the assembly at will.

   Similardisband, terminate, end, abolish

   Oppositeestablish, found

   Note

   The institutional sense carries the word's root image: Latin dissolvere, "to loosen up, break apart", from dis- "apart" and solvere "to loose". Parliaments are the classic object, and a government may dissolve one early, hoping to return with a larger majority. Its opposites are establish and found. It differs from scattering a crowd because here the body itself ceases to exist, rather than its members simply leaving.

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To annul or rescind a legal arrangement; to discharge or release someone from a binding obligation.

   The court moved to dissolve the injunction after new evidence emerged.

   An annulment dissolves the marriage as though it never legally existed.

   Similarannul, rescind, revoke, cancel, void

   Oppositeuphold, confirm, validate, ratify

   Note

   Law uses it for undoing what binds, such as an injunction, a marriage or a set of obligations. The object is an order or a relationship rather than the body that made it, which separates it from ending a parliament or partnership. Brandon Nowalk, writing on Game of Thrones in 2017, applies it to a whole order of rule: the old government "dissolved and reshaped by King Robert".

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To melt a solid substance into a fluid; to liquefy it.

   Steady heat dissolves the resin into a workable liquid.

   Alchemists believed fire could dissolve metals into their purest form.

   Similarmelt

   Oppositesolidify, freeze, harden, congeal

   Note

   Here something acts on a solid and turns it to liquid, and melt is the everyday equivalent. Shakespeare's King John (1595) bends it toward grief with "as if the world were all dissolved to tears", where to marks what the thing becomes. Keep it apart from the chemist's sense: melting changes a substance on its own, while a solution needs a second substance to dissolve into.

7. 7
   verbintransitive

   Of a solid, to melt and be changed into a fluid.

   The candle slowly dissolved into a puddle of hot wax.

   Ice sculptures dissolve quickly once the afternoon sun hits them.

   Similarmelt, liquefy, thaw

   Oppositesolidify, freeze, harden

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   To break the continuity of something; to disconnect, loosen, or separate its joined parts.

   Mistrust gradually dissolved the connections that once held the alliance firm.

   A clumsy edit can dissolve the narrative thread that holds a story together.

   Similarsever, loosen, break, unravel, undo

   Oppositebind, join, connect, unite

   Note

   This is the most literal survivor of the Latin "loosen apart" told under the institutional sense: what dissolves here is a joint or a bond. In Edward Fairfax's Tasso of 1600, a duke falls with "his joints dissolved asunder". The Declaration of Independence of 1776 speaks of one people needing "to dissolve the political bands" that connect them with another. Bands and ties are its natural objects.

9. 9
   verbtransitive

   To disperse a group of people, driving them apart.

   Officers used barriers to dissolve the protest peacefully.

   The sudden downpour dissolved the open-air market within minutes.

   Similardisperse, scatter, disband

   Oppositegather, assemble, convene

10. 10
    verbintransitive

    Of a film shot, to transition into another by fading out as the next shot fades in.

    The film dissolves from the battlefield to a peaceful meadow.

    Here the two shots dissolve into one another to suggest the passage of time.

    Similarfade, segue, crossfade

    Oppositecut

    Note

    An editor's verb, it takes the shot or the film as its subject, and the usual path is dissolves from one image to another. For a moment both images share the screen, one weakening as the other strengthens. That overlap lets the transition suggest a shift in time, place or mood. Its noun twin is the transition itself.

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