Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use dissipate in a sentence

20 example sentences · verb, adjective

Dissipate means to drive away, disperse. Example: “A smoke ring persists for a surprisingly long time, illustrating the slow rate at which viscosity dissipates the energy of a vortex.”

Examples of dissipate by meaning

verbTo use up or waste; squander.

  • All the catering to vice and waste was on an utterly childish scale, and he suddenly realized the meaning of the word "dissipate"—to dissipate into thin air; to make nothing out of something.1931, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Babylon Revisited

verbTo cause energy to be lost through its conversion to heat.

  • The traction motors serve as generators when dynamic braking is used, the generated output being dissipated in fan-cooled resistance banks mounted in a removable roof section.1960 April, “English Electric diesels for the Sudan Railways”, in Trains Illustrated, page 218
  • Like rheostatic braking, this uses the traction motors to provide a braking effort, but the current developed is fed back into the overhead catenary rather than dissipated through resistance banks.2023 July 26, David Clough, “Technology progression defines Class 93”, in RAIL, number 988, page 54

More sentences with dissipate

  • A smoke ring persists for a surprisingly long time, illustrating the slow rate at which viscosity dissipates the energy of a vortex.From the entry smoke ring
  • Thankfully the tension dissipates when the waitress returns to ask about dessert.2025 May 3, Leila Abboud, “Lunch with the FT: Jean-Luc Mélenchon”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd.…. From the entry Paris-Brest
  • Whenever the system is dismembered to examine its components, this binding energy dissipates.2009, J.-C. Spender, “Organizational Knowledge, Collective Practice and Penrose Rents”, in Michael H. Zack, editor, Knowledge and…. From the entry synergy
  • A person filled with gumption doesn't sit around dissipating and stewing about things.1974, Robert M[aynard] Pirsig, chapter 26, in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, New York, N.Y.: William…. From the entry gumption
  • The ostrich can loosen the feathers to help dissipate body heat or draw them close to conserve it.2020 August 4, Richard Conniff, “They may look goofy, but ostriches are nobody’s fool”, in National Geographic Magazine. From the entry flounciness
  • Asymmetry can also occur if adjacent channel walls are isothermal but at different temperatures or isoflux but dissipating different heat fluxes.2015, Myer Kutz, Mechanical Engineers' Handbook, Volume 4: Energy and Power, →ISBN. From the entry isoflux
  • The device itself can dissipate a peak power of 78 W when properly heatsinked and has a 65 W steady dissipation.2012, Robert B. Northrop, Analysis and Application of Analog Electronic Circuits to Biomedical Instrumentation, page 385. From the entry heatsink
  • Plasma venturing beyond that is led into the divertor, where it strikes high-temperature materials with heroic cooling to dissipate the heat.2011, Francis Chen, An Indispensable Truth: How Fusion Power Can Save the Planet, page 287. From the entry heroic cooling
  • Embracing difference or culturally ascribed abjection with the aim of overcoming or dissipating it would be both naive and ineffective.2009 September 10, W. C. Harris, Queer Externalities: Hazardous Encounters in American Culture, SUNY Press, →ISBN, page 98. From the entry abjection
  • Their rage appeared to dissipate into bewilderment as they sensed for the first time exactly where they were.1984, Richard Setlowe, The Haunting of Suzanna Blackwell: A Novel, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, page 272. From the entry rabid
  • Most sunscreens use either titanium dioxide or zinc oxide, chemicals that reflect, scatter, or absorb ultraviolet light and dissipate it as heat.2017, Bob Berman, Zapped: From Infrared to X-rays, the Curious History of Invisible Light, Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 60. From the entry SPF
  • The day will come when Esau's seething will dissipate, and the scenario with Jacob and Esau will become only part of Esau's distant past.1995 September 26, Victor P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis, Chapters 18-50, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, →ISBN, page 89. From the entry time heals all hurts
  • Though he had the gardenhose in his hands and a drain outlet near, he failed to use the hose in dissipating the dangerous accumulation.1957, United States. Court of Claims, District of Columbia. Court of Appeals, The Federal reporter, Volume 242, page 292. From the entry gardenhose
  • He is wet if he doesn't show at least a tendency to dissipate, but he isn't wet if he dissipates to excess.1924, Percy Marks, chapter XVII, in The Plastic Age. From the entry wet
  • Despite hopes that the story would dissipate over the August recess, the White House is preparing for Trump to take more heat from Republicans in the weeks ahead.2025 August 7, Jonathan Lemire, “Things Aren’t Going Donald Trump’s Way”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 09 Sep 2025. From the entry take the heat
  • Though you can find escarole in most grocery stores, many people don't take advantage of it, perhaps because of its slight bitterness (which dissipates when cooked).2016 August, Lucinda Scala Quinn, “Killer Salads”, in Mad Hungry Family: 120 Essential Recipes to Feed the Whole Crew, New York, N.Y.…. From the entry escarole
  • Sweeping was like the pedilavium, a purification of the floor of the house and the feet of the believer, contaminated by the insidious flow of a dissipating humanity.2003, Ron Southern, “Strangers Below: An Archaeology of Distinctions in an Eighteenth-century Religious Community”, in Susan Lawrence…. From the entry pedilavium

Meaning of dissipate

  1. verb To drive away, disperse.
  2. verb To use up or waste; squander.
  3. verb To vanish by dispersion.

Full definition of dissipate

Questions about dissipate in a sentence

How do you use dissipate in a sentence?
Dissipate is used as a verb and adjective. For example: “A smoke ring persists for a surprisingly long time, illustrating the slow rate at which viscosity dissipates the energy of a vortex.”
What is a short sentence with dissipate?
“Thankfully the tension dissipates when the waitress returns to ask about dessert.”
What does dissipate mean?
Dissipate means to drive away, disperse.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dissipate (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use dissipate in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/dissipate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.