Dictionary

volatilize en · VERB

Etymology

Etymology tree English volatile Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)bor. Late Latin -izōder. Middle French -iserbor. Middle English -isen English -ize English volatilize From volatile + -ize.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To make volatile; to cause to evaporate.
   • But the healthy breeze of a neighbouring heath, on which we bounded at pleaſure, volatilized the humours that improper food might have generated. 1798, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, “[Maria: or, The] Wrongs of Woman”, in W[illiam] Godwin, editor, Posthumous Works of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. […], volume I, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […]; and G[eorge,] G[eorge] and J[ohn] Robinson, […], →OCLC, chapter VII, page 145:
2. (figuratively, transitive) To make insubstantial; to dissipate.
3. (intransitive) To become volatile; to evaporate.

Forms

Deriveds

devolatilize · revolatilize