| 释义 |
solvent, a. and n.|ˈsɒlvənt|
[ad. L. solvent-, solvens, pres. pple. of solvĕre solve v.]
A. adj.
1. Able to pay all one's debts or liabilities.
1653H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. lxxviii. 315 Certain Chineses, who were not men solvent, but became bankrupts. 1664Addit. to Life Mede M.'s Wks. (1672) p. xxxvi, Mr. Mede began..to refuse.., and objected, How shall I be able to be solvent in convenient time? 1698Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) IV. 379 The commons read the bill..for discovery of solvent prisoners estates. 1812Crabbe Borough xxiii. 49 They would be solvent, and deplore a debt. 1846Grote Greece (1862) II. 312 A solvent man capable of..fulfilling a contract. 1885Law Times Rep. LIII. 484/1 If the plaintiff in England had been solvent, no security would have been required.
transf.1667Ormonde MSS. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. V. 45 Sir Daniel Bellingham..is..to issue such solvent assignments as they may receive speedy satisfaction. 1674Essex Papers (Camden) I. 183 'Tis probable yt most of y⊇ solvent Arrears are already gather'd.
Comb.1852Mundy Antipodes (1857) 35 A solvent looking gentleman, solus in a buggy, is the very thing for a highwayman.
2. Dissolving; causing solution.
1686Plot Staffordsh. 9 [Lightning] being of a very subtile nature..and solvent of the parts of bodies. 1791J. Jones in Beddoes On Calculus (1793) 32 The extraordinary efficacy of the sal sodæ I had seen in the last case, induced me to try its solvent powers in this. 1807Phil. Trans. XCVII. 146 The excretory ducts of the glands, which secrete the solvent liquor. 1832Brewster Nat. Magic xii. 298 The disintegrating and solvent powers of chemical agents. 1878Huxley Physiogr. 122 The comparative ease with which limestone yields to the solvent action of water.
fig.1875Maine Hist. Inst. xi. 329 Among the most powerful solvent influences were certain philosophical theories.
3. Helping to solve or explain.
1872Tulloch Rational Theol. I. i. 34 The most significant and solvent of all the rational principles enunciated by Arminianism.
B. n.
1. a. A substance (usually a liquid) having the power of dissolving other substances.
1671Boyle Usef. Nat. Philos. II. ii. 18 By a substitution of burnt Allom for Vitriol,..we made Solvents for Silver, as good as theirs. 1681tr. Willis' Rem. Med. Wks. Vocab., Solvent, that which dissolveth or openeth the parts of the matter to be wrought upon. 1756C. Lucas Ess. Waters I. 159 Water..is found the most universal solvent of the food of man and other animals. 1782Phil. Trans. LXXIII. 51 If formed by solution, they..retain a portion of their solvent or precipitant. 1827Faraday Chem. Manip. vi. 187 Some of the acids frequently act as mere solvents. 1871Tyndall Fragm. Sci. (1879) I. ii. 43 The solvent of the iodine is perfectly transparent.
b. fig. A dissolving or disintegrating influence.
1841Emerson Ess., Intellect Wks. (Bohn) I. 143 Silence is a solvent that destroys personality. 1870E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. II. 5 Fine phrases which have acted as solvents upon..unreasoning Whiggism and Toryism. 1886Contemp. Rev. July 72 The great solvent of Indian caste prejudice is Western thought.
2. Something which solves, explains, or settles.
1865Lecky Ration. (1878) I. 292 Those who, perceiving..yet undefined discoveries,..imagine that they will prove a universal solvent. 1871R. H. Hutton Ess. (1877) I. 43 How the absence of theistic faith tends..to make philosophy the universal solvent of fact. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Colonial Ref. (1891) 317 He..was compelled to employ that only universal solvent, a cash payment.
3. A laxative; a loosener.
1815Kirby & Sp. Entomol. (1818) I. 314 Had I addressed you a century ago,..I should have recommended the wood⁓louse as a solvent and aperient. 1823Lamb Elia Ser. ii. Pref., He took it [tobacco], he would say, as a solvent of speech.
4. A person able to pay all his debts.
1825Cobbett Rur. Rides (1853) 354 Every insolvent blames a solvent, that will not lend him money.
5. attrib. and Comb., as solvent abuse, solvent recovery, solvent-sniffing; solvent-thinned adj.; solvent extraction, the partial removal of a substance from a solution or a mixture of liquids by utilizing its greater solubility in another liquid or its greater permeability through a membrane; so solvent-extract v. trans., to purify by means of solvent extraction; also as n., a fraction extracted from a mixture by this process; a spell of solvent extraction.
1977Solvent abuse [see sniffing vbl. n.]
1949Our Industry (Anglo-Iranian Oil Co.) (ed. 2) iv. 116 The kerosine fraction may..be solvent extracted by means of liquid sulphur dioxide. 1956Nature 4 Feb. 224/2 When insulin was added to an acidic solvent-extract of liver..the recovery of the insulin varied between 92 and 93 per cent. 1963A. J. Hall Textile Sci. iii. 122 Another system of purifying wool is to solvent extract it with an organic solvent such as trichloroethylene. 1978Nature 23 Mar. 298/2 Subsequent solvent extract in mixer settlers will separate plutonium nitrate solution.
1920Chem. Trade Jrnl. LXVI. 103 Quantities of oil for edible purposes were being produced by solvent extraction processes. 1949Our Industry (Anglo-Iranian Oil Co.) (ed. 2) iv. 119 Solvent extraction processes are to-day used extensively in the petroleum industry for refining light distillates, kerosines and lubricating oils. 1978Sci. Amer. July 97/3 Solvent extraction across membranes has been known at least since 1913, when Fritz Haber and Reinhardt Beutner showed that a thin film of oil could be employed as a membrane in two kinds of extraction process.
1947Kirk & Othmer Encycl. Chem. Technol. I. 231 Activated carbon is used on a large scale for solvent recovery. 1977Lancet 8 Jan. 82/1 Cardiac arrhythmias,..neuropsychiatric disorders, and hepatorenal failure have all been reported after solvent sniffing.
1960McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. IX. 493/1 Solvent-thinned paints, which dry essentially by solvent evaporation, rely on a fairly hard resin as the vehicle.
Hence ˈsolvently adv.
1872H. Bushnell Serm. Living Subj. 437 That personal life-giving spirit that will touch as it were solvently, all the secret bonds and propagative chains of causes. |