The air consequently was damp and gross, for want of stronger rays to open and rarify it. From Wordnik.com. [The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans] Reference
For a poem that is about the wish for freedom to be common, the word choice seems to rarify, rather than familiarize, the diction. From Wordnik.com. [Patrick Rosal reads Robert Hayden] Reference
That there is an Air abroad sufficient to divide and resolve them, or the Heat of the Sun has been strong enough to exhale them, that is, to rarify them, so as to render them lighter than the Air through which they were to pass. From Wordnik.com. [The Shepherd of Banbury's Rules to Judge of the Changes of the Weather, Grounded on Forty Years' Experience] Reference
This may rarify the contrapuntal structures, making them easier to follow, but it comes at the expense of a certain elemental timelessness. From Wordnik.com. [Ionarts] Reference
Their method of doing it is this: they hold one of these dry sticks in each hand, and by rubbing them hard and quick together, rarify the air in such a manner as to fetch fire in ten minutes. From Wordnik.com. [The Westover Manuscripts: Containing the History of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia and North Carolina; A Journey to the Land of Eden, A. D. 1733; and A Progress to the Mines. Written from 1728 to 1736, and Now First Published] Reference
Now the more that the stronger man’s inner tendencies are defined, the more he can be sure they will show, the more nessessity to rarify them, to use them sparingly. From Wordnik.com. [A Life in Letters] Reference
Attenuation is a term not unaptly applied to fermentation, the property of attenuation being to divide, then dilute, and rarify thick, gross, viscid, and dense substances, in which some degree of fluidity is pre-supposed; it is, therefore, that kind of dilution or fluidity which is promoted by agitation, and very aptly applied to mark the progress of fermentation, which is itself the process of nature, for decomposing vegetable and animal substances under a convenient degree of fluidity; it exists in intestine motion, either spontaneous or excited, accompanied with heat, which, under certain limits, is proportioned to the vigour of the fermentation, which ends in the decomposition of one class of bodies, and the composition of another; and which may be instanced in the resolving saccharine substances into hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon, and the combining them into inflammable spirits, or alcohol, and inflammable acids or vinegar; to which may be added, the lower you attenuate, the lighte. From Wordnik.com. [The American Practical Brewer and Tanner] Reference
LearnThatWord and the Open Dictionary of English are programs by LearnThat Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit.
Questions? Feedback? We want to hear from you!
Email us
or click here for instant support.
Copyright © 2005 and after - LearnThat Foundation. Patents pending.