Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To take up by adsorption.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To gather (a gas or liquid) on the surface in a condensed layer. Thus solids, such as glass, gather gases and liquids with which they are in contact.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb to attract and bind (molecules of a substance in a fluid) so as to form a thin layer on the surface, by non-electrostatic forces; to bind by adsorption. Distinguished from absorb, in which the foreign substance penetrates the body of the absorbing material.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive, chemistry To accumulate on a surface, by adsorption

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb accumulate (liquids or gases) on the surface

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[ad– + Latin sorbēre, to suck.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French, from Latin ad- ("to"), + sorbere ("suck in").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word adsorb.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.