sublimate

(verb)

To modify the natural expression of a sexual or primitive instinct in a socially acceptable manner; to divert the energy of such an instinct into some acceptable activity.

Related Terms

Examples of sublimate in the following topics:

  • Solid to Gas Phase Transition

    • For some substances, such as carbon and arsenic, sublimation is much easier than evaporation.
    • The enthalpy of sublimation (also called heat of sublimation) can be calculated as the sum of the enthalpy of fusion and the enthalpy of vaporization.
    • The reverse process of sublimation is deposition (i.e., gas to solid).
    • For example, solid iodine, I2, is easily sublimed at temperatures around 100°C.
    • Solid carbon dioxide (known as "dry ice") sublimes into the air.

  • Properties of Carbon

    • It is a solid, and sublimes at 3,642 °C (it has the highest sublimation point of all the elements).

  • The Water (Hydrologic) Cycle

    • This leads to the evaporation (water to water vapor) of liquid surface water and the sublimation (ice to water vapor) of frozen water, which deposits large amounts of water vapor into the atmosphere.
    • Water from the land and oceans enters the atmosphere by evaporation or sublimation, where it condenses into clouds and falls as rain or snow.

  • Properties of Sulfur

    • It melts at 115.21 °C, boils at 444.6 °C, and sublimes easily.

  • Desiccation

    • Water is usually removed by evaporation (air drying, sun drying, smoking, or wind drying) but, in the case of freeze-drying, food is first frozen and then the water is removed by sublimation.

  • Romantic Love

    • Romantic love is contrasted with platonic love which in all usages precludes sexual relations, yet only in the modern usage does it take on a fully asexual sense, rather than the classical sense in which sexual drives are sublimated.
    • Unrequited love can be romantic in different ways: comic, tragic, or in the sense that sublimation itself is comparable to romance, where the spirituality of both art and egalitarian ideals is combined with strong character and emotions.

  • Latent Heat

    • A phase change we have neglected to mention thus far is sublimation, the transition of solid directly into vapor.
    • Sublimation has its own latent heat Ls and can be used in the same way as Lv and Lf.

  • Hatshepsut

    • The focal point of the tomb was the Djeser-Djeseru or "the Sublime of Sublimes", a colonnaded structure of perfect harmony that predates the Parthenon by nearly one thousand years.

  • Hatshepsut

    • However, Hatshepsut's masterpiece was a mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri; the focal point was the Djeser-Djeseru ("the Sublime of Sublimes"), a colonnaded structure built 1,000 years before the Greek Parthenon.

  • Phases of Matter

    • Sometimes, a solid can skip freezing and go directly to a gaseous state; this process is called sublimation.