Word of the Day: Sublime

sub-lime / sə-ˈblīm

 

adjective

 

1. grand or lofty in thought, expression, etc.

Anything which elevates the mind is sublime. Greatness of matter, space, power, virtue or beauty, are all sublime.

John Ruskin, 1819-1900

 

2. complete

Taste is the good sense of genius; without taste, genius is only sublime folly.

Alexander Pope, 1688-1744

 

3. outstanding

Know how sublime a thing it is to suffer and be strong.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807-1882

 

noun

 

1. the best or greatest

You do not reach the sublime by degrees; the distance between it and the merely beautiful are infinite.

Madame de Stael, 1766-1817

 

verb

 

1. to elevate or make nobler, greater, etc.

The cursory remarks of the large-minded stranger, of whom he knew absolutely nothing beyond a commonplace name, were sublimed by his death.

from ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ by Thomas Hardy, 1840-1928

 

2. in chemistry, to cause to go from a solid state to a vapor state, and then pass back to a solid state

For example, solid iodine, I₂, is easily sublimed at temperatures around 100° C.

courses.lumenlearning.com/introchem/chapter/solid-to-gas-phase-transition