reflux (ˈriːflʌks)

—vb
1.	chem to boil or be boiled in a vessel attached to a condenser, so that the vapour condenses and flows back into the vessel

—n
2.	chem
	a. an act of refluxing
	b. (as modifier): a reflux condenser
3.	the act or an instance of flowing back; ebb

[C15: from Medieval Latin refluxus, from Latin refluere to flow back]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

reflux

c.1430, "a flowing back (of the sea, etc.)," from M.L. refluxus, from L. re- "back, again" + fluxus "a flowing" (see flux). Digestive sense is recorded from 1937.

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

reflux re·flux (rē'flŭks')
n.

A flowing back.
The process of refluxing.

v. re·fluxed, re·flux·ing, re·flux·es
To boil a liquid in a vessel attached to a condenser so that the vapors continuously condense for reboiling.

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Matching Quote

"Though for some time I have not spoken of the roaring of the breakers, and the ceaseless flux and reflux of the waves, yet they did not for a moment cease to dash and roar, with such a tumult that, if you had been there, you could scarcely have heard my voice the while; and they are dashing and roaring this very moment,—though it may be with less din and violence,—for there the sea never rests. We were wholly absorbed by this spectacle and tumult, and like Chryses, though in a different mood from him, we walked silent along the shore of the resounding sea ...—though I doubt if Homer's Mediterranean Sea ever sounded so loud as this."

-Henry David Thoreau

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