Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- To be capricious or fantastic.
- To treat or impregnate with mercury, as by exposure to its vapor, or immersion in a chemical solution of it.
- In medicine, to affect with mercury, as the bodily system; bring under the influence of mercury. Also spelled
mercurialise .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb obsolete To be sprightly, fantastic, or capricious.
- transitive verb (Med.) To affect with mercury.
- transitive verb (Photography) To treat with mercury; to expose to the vapor of mercury.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb chemistry, transitive To
treat withmercury (the metal). - verb obsolete To be
sprightly ,fantastic , orcapricious .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
mercurial + -ize
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word mercurialize.
Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
Gammerstang commented on the word mercurialize
(verb) - (1) To be humorous, new-fangled, fantastical.
--Rev. John Boag's Imperial Lexicon of the English Language, c.1850
(2) Mercurie is much used among other pot-hearbs . . . It is very good to be used in broths or pottage for such as are costive and subject to obstructions.
--Thomas Venner's Via Recta: The Right Way of Living, 1650
January 14, 2018