deliquescent

Etymology

Latin deliquescens, present participle of deliquesco; de + liquesco (“I melt”): compare French déliquescent.

Adjective

deliquescent (comparative more deliquescent, superlative most deliquescent)

1. (chemistry) Absorbing moisture from the air and forming a solution.

   deliquescent salts

2. (botany) Branching so that the stem is lost in branches, as in most deciduous trees.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Gray to this entry?)

3. melting; disappearing; seeming to deliquesce.
   • 1993, John Banville, Ghosts

     Yes, laugh, as I want to laugh for instance in the concert hall when the orchestra trundles to a stop and the virtuoso at his piano, hunched like a demented vet before the bared teeth of this enormous black beast of sound, lifts up deliquescent hands and prepares to plunge into the cadenza.