effloresce

Verb

effloresce (third-person singular simple present effloresces, present participle efflorescing, simple past and past participle effloresced)

1. (intransitive, obsolete except figuratively) To burst into bloom; to flower.
   • The genus isis, or coral, in the order of zoophytes, or composite animals, efflorescing like vegetables, is an animal in the form of a plant, with a stony stem, jointed, and the joints longitudinally channelled, united by spongy or horny junctures, covered by a soft porous cellular flesh or bark...1810, Joseph Guy, “Coral and Sponge Fishery”, in Guy’s Pocket Cyclopædia, or, Miscellany of Useful Knowledge. […], 5th augmented and improved edition, London: Printed [by C. Stower] for C. Cradock...
   • Human societies have effloresced to levels of extreme complexity because their members have the intelligence and flexibility to play roles of virtually any degree of specification, and to switch them as the occasion demands.1981, C. Leon Harris, “Modern Times: Marxism, Lysenkoism, and Sociobiology”, in Evolution: Genesis and Revelations: With Readings from Empedocles to Wilson, Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York...
2. (figuratively, intransitive) Of something hidden: to come forth, to emerge; also, to reach full glory or power.
   • These [God's promises], implanted in the soul of David, effloresced in the Psalms to that luxuriance and fruitfulness which have made them the delight and nourishment of all succeeding ages of the church, [...]1829, “Conversation the Fifteenth. What Light is Thrown, upon that Part of God’s Purpose which is yet Unaccomplished, by the Historical Events of the Jewish Nation?”, in [Henry Drummond], editor...
   • No more in tears / She lingers 'mong the years, / No more she watcheth through the lonesome night; / Her night is past, / No shadow on her cast, / She effloresceth 'mong the flowers in light.1893, James M‘Vittie, In Memoriam, and Songs of Cheer from the Cradle to the Grave, Glasgow: Scottish Temperance League Office, →OCLC, page 155
3. (intransitive) Of a substance: to change from being crystalline to powdery by losing water of crystallization.
   • This is the very caſe with the Pyrites that conſiſt only of iron and ſulphur; yet ſome of them, as we ſaid before, do not effloreſce ſpontaneouſly and turn to Vitriol.1758, [Pierre-Joseph] Macquer, “Of the Vitriolic Acid”, in Andrew Reid, transl., Elements of the Theory and Practice of Chymistry. Translated from the French […] In Two Volumes, volume I, London...
   • The ſame alkali, diſſolved in water, previouſly ſaturated with air, produces by cryſtallization ſimilar figures; theſe cryſtals neither deliqueſce in moiſt air, nor effloreſce in dry, but always retain their tranſparency: [...]1784, Torbern Bergman, “Of the Aerial Acid”, in Edmund Cullen, transl., Physical and Chemical Essays; Translated from the Original Latin […], volume I, London: Printed for J[ohn] Murray, […], →OCLC...
4. (intransitive) Of a salt: to seep through some material (bricks, concrete, earth, rock, etc.) in a dissolved state, and then crystallize on a surface in a powdery form.
   • The ſalts which effloreſce from old walls, are nitre more or leſs pure, quadrangular nitre, mineral alkali in abundance, more or leſs pure, and mixed with calcareous earth; [...]1790 January, “Foreign Literary Intelligence”, in The Critical Review: Or, Annals of Literature (Series the Fifth), volume LXIX, London: Printed for A. Hamilton, […], →OCLC, page 101
   • It [sodium sulphate] exists likewise native in mineral springs, and sometimes it effloresces on the walls of old buildings.1809, William Nicholson, “SULPHATES”, in The British Encyclopedia, or Dictionary of Arts and Sciences; […], volume VI (S … Z), London: Printed by C[harles] Whittingham, […]; for Longman, Hurst, Rees...
5. (intransitive) Of the surface of a material: to become covered with a powdery salt (as described in sense 3.2).
   • In the country about Rome there is a very hard ſtone, which is hewn out of the quarry juſt like other ſtones for building: this ſtone yields a great deal of Alum. In order to extract it, the ſtones are calcined for twelve or fourteen hours; after which they are expoſed to the air in heaps, and...1758, [Pierre-Joseph] Macquer, “Of the Vitriolic Acid”, in Andrew Reid, transl., Elements of the Theory and Practice of Chymistry. Translated from the French […] In Two Volumes, volume I, London...
   • This ſtone is perpetually effloreſcing, and forming the ſalt called Sulphate of Iron: vulgarly, Copperas.1799, James Headrick, “On the Practicability, and Advantages, of Opening a Navigation between the Murray Firth at Inverness, and Loch Eil, at Fort William”, in Henry Mackenzie, editor, Prize Essays...