Word of the Day Archive
Saturday July 9, 2011
sublimate \SUHB-luh-meyt\
, verb:
1. In psychology, to direct the energy of a primitive impulse into activities that are considered to be socially more acceptable.
2. In chemistry, to refine or purify a substance.
3. To make nobler or purer.
I sublimate my depression into creativity, but as a man who can only focus on one thing at a time, I can only sublimate into one target.
-- Marc Koetzle, The World of Should
But with the love thing -- love your enemies, turn the other cheek - they could sublimate the other things, they transcended them.
-- Toni Morrison, Danille Kathleen Taylor-Guthrie, Conversations with Toni Morrison
Sublimate is based on the Latin sublimatus, "to exalt."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for sublimate
