Definition of "sublimate"

(transitive)

1. (chemistry) To heat (a substance) in a container so as to convert it into a gas which then condenses in solid form on cooler parts of the container.

   1. (generally) To change (a solid substance) into a gas without breaking down or passing through the liquid state by heating it gently.  examples

   2. (chiefly passive voice) To change (a substance) from a gas into a solid through sublimation.  examples

2. (by extension)

   1. (figurative) To refine (something) until it disappears or loses all meaning.  examples

   2. (figurative, psychoanalysis) 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.  quotations  examples

      Quotations

      • Foreigners extol the American "energy" […] Basically it is the energy of violence, of free-floating resentment and anxiety unleashed by chronic cultural dislocations which must be, for the most part, ferociously sublimated. This energy has mainly been sublimated into crude materialism and acquisitiveness.

        1969, Susan Sontag, “What’s Happening in America”, in Styles of Radical Will, Kindle edition, Penguin Modern Classics, published 2009, page 194

      • When he got home from the parade, however, Professor Solanka was seized by melancholy, his usual secret sadness, which he sublimated into the public sphere. Something was amiss with the world. The optimistic peace-and-love philosophy of his youth having given him up, he no longer knew how to reconcile himself to an increasingly phoney […] reality.

        2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, page 7

   3. (chiefly figurative, archaic) To obtain (something) through, or as if through, sublimation.

   4. (chiefly figurative, archaic) To purify or refine (a substance).  quotations

      Quotations

      • The precepts of Christianity are […] so apt […] to cleanse and sublimate the more gross and corrupt.

        1667, attributed to Richard Allestree, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety. […], London: […] R. Norton for T. Garthwait, […]

3. (by extension) Synonym of sublime

   1. (also figurative) To raise (someone) to a high office or status; to dignify, to elevate, to exalt.  examples

   2. (figurative) To raise (a physical thing) to a state of excellence; to improve.  examples

(intransitive)

1. (chemistry) Of a substance: to change from a solid into a gas without passing through the liquid state, with or without being heated.  examples

2. (chemistry) Of a substance: to change from a gas into a solid without passing through the liquid state.  examples

3. (figurative, psychoanalysis) 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.  examples

4. (figurative) Synonym of sublime (“to become higher in quality or status; to improve”)  examples

(chemistry) A product obtained by sublimation.  examples