corrode
/kəˈrəʊd
/verb [with object]
1Destroy or damage (metal, stone, or other materials) slowly by chemical action: acid rain poisons fish and corrodes buildings...
- The chemicals - abandoned in the old building - had corroded their metal containers and seeped into a path.
- Aqua regia is basically a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids, and it is one of the few chemical reagents potent enough to corrode gold.
- Boyle went on to characterize acids, noting their sour or tart taste and their ability to corrode metals.
Synonyms
wear away, wear down, eat away (at), gnaw away (at), bite into, burn into, burn through, erode, abrade, consume, dissolve;
oxidize, oxidate;
rust, tarnish, destroy, spoil
1.1 [no object] (Of metal or other materials) be destroyed or damaged in this way: over the years copper pipework corrodes...
- Galvanized iron and copper screen were used in the past but these materials corrode over a period of time and should be replaced before they discolor the window frames and walls.
- While homes covered in other materials can corrode, rot, split, warp, dent, or crack through the years, brick does not.
- As the steel corrodes into rust, the re-bar expands and splits the concrete open.
Synonyms
rust, become rusty, tarnish;
deteriorate, waste away, disintegrate, crumble, fragment, be destroyed, perish, spoil
2Destroy or weaken (something) gradually: the self-centred climate corrodes ideals and concerns about social justice...
- Instead, it seems that it is causing a more complicated destabilisation - inflaming long-running local conflicts, and gradually corroding nation states.
- And we also know that wars undertaken when they have no clear relation either to a nation's interests or its ideals can corrode the internal life of nations or at least reveal their weaknesses.
- This is the moment and the method to decide whether it will continue to corrode our relations and undermine our ambitions for the indefinite future, or not.
Derivatives
corrodible
- Material scientists have constructed a stent from corrodible iron and tested it out.
- However, NOAA Fisheries is conducting research into other specifications or definitions of corrodible hooks.
- On May 8, 1985 the federal Interim Prohibition became effective banning nationwide the installation of corrodible tanks and piping until final federal regulations became effective.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Latin corrodere, from cor- (expressing intensive force) + rodere 'gnaw'.
The second part of corrode is the same as the first part of rodent—a clue to the meaning of their Latin source rodere. It means ‘to gnaw’, so when something is corroded it is gradually worn away, as if by gnawing.