Link Centre Dictionary

sublime

sub·lime

US/səˈblaɪm/ fairly common informal
adjective (3) verb (2)

adjective

1.

inspiring awe

  • “well-meaning ineptitude that rises to empyreal absurdity” M.S.Dworkin
  • “empyrean aplomb” Hamilton Basso
  • “the sublime beauty of the night”
Synonyms
Similar
2.
3.

lifted up or set high

  • “their hearts were jocund and sublime” Milton
Similar

verb

1.
2.

change or cause to change directly from a solid into a vapor without first melting

  • “sublime iodine”
  • “some salts sublime when heated”
Synonyms

Origin

PIE word *upó Partly from the following: * From Middle English sublimen, sublime, sublyme (“to exalt, extol, glorify, honour; (alchemy) to refine (a substance) by vaporizing in a closed container; to obtain (a substance) by cooling vapour obtained through sublimation; to extract (a pure substance) from a mixture by sublimation; to sublimate (a substance)”), from Middle French sublimer, Old French sublimer (“to exalt, glorify, honour; to refine (a substance) by vaporizing in a closed container; of a substance: to undergo sublimation”) (modern French sublimer), and from its etymon Latin sublīmāre, the present active infinitive of sublimō (“to elevate, raise; to soar”) (compare Late Latin sublimō (“to elevate, raise; to exalt, glorify, honour; to sublimate, vaporize”)), from sublīmis (“elevated, raised; exalted, uplifted, sublime; elevated in style”) (from sub- (prefix meaning ‘under; up to’) + possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *Heh₃l- (“to bend”) (whence Latin līmen (“threshold”) and līmus (“askew; sideways”))) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs). * From sublime (adjective). Cognates * Catalan sublimar * Italian sublimare * Old Occitan sublimar * Port...

Phrases

  • Sublime Porte

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Entails

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.