Quicksilver

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Quicksilver \Quick"sil`ver\, n. [Quick living + silver; -- so
     called from its fluidity; cf. G. quecksilber, L. argentum
     vivum. See {Quick}, a.] (Chem.)
     The metal mercury; -- so called from its resemblance to
     liquid silver.
     [1913 Webster]


  
     {Quicksilver horizon}, a mercurial artificial horizon. See
        under {Horizon}.
  
     {Quicksilver water}, a solution of mercury nitrate used in
        artificial silvering; quick water.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Mercury \Mer"cu*ry\, n. [L. Mercurius; akin to merx wares.]
     1. (Rom. Myth.) A Latin god of commerce and gain; -- treated
        by the poets as identical with the Greek Hermes, messenger
        of the gods, conductor of souls to the lower world, and
        god of eloquence.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Chem.) A metallic element mostly obtained by reduction
        from cinnabar, one of its ores. It is a heavy, opaque,
        glistening liquid (commonly called {quicksilver}), and is
        used in barometers, thermometers, etc. Specific gravity
        13.6. Symbol Hg (Hydrargyrum). Atomic weight 199.8.
        Mercury has a molecule which consists of only one atom. It
        was named by the alchemists after the god Mercury, and
        designated by his symbol, [mercury].
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: Mercury forms alloys, called amalgams, with many
           metals, and is thus used in applying tin foil to the
           backs of mirrors, and in extracting gold and silver
           from their ores. It is poisonous, and is used in
           medicine in the free state as in blue pill, and in its
           compounds as calomel, corrosive sublimate, etc. It is
           the only metal which is liquid at ordinary
           temperatures, and it solidifies at about -39[deg]
           Centigrade to a soft, malleable, ductile metal.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Astron.) One of the planets of the solar system, being
        the one nearest the sun, from which its mean distance is
        about 36,000,000 miles. Its period is 88 days, and its
        diameter 3,000 miles.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. A carrier of tidings; a newsboy; a messenger; hence, also,
        a newspaper. --Sir J. Stephen. "The monthly Mercuries."
        --Macaulay.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     5. Sprightly or mercurial quality; spirit; mutability;
        fickleness. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              He was so full of mercury that he could not fix long
              in any friendship, or to any design.  --Bp. Burnet.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     6. (Bot.) A plant ({Mercurialis annua}), of the Spurge
        family, the leaves of which are sometimes used for
        spinach, in Europe.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: The name is also applied, in the United States, to
           certain climbing plants, some of which are poisonous to
           the skin, esp. to the {Rhus Toxicodendron}, or poison
           ivy.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     {Dog's mercury} (Bot.), {Mercurialis perennis}, a perennial
        plant differing from {Mercurialis annua} by having the
        leaves sessile.
  
     {English mercury} (Bot.), a kind of goosefoot formerly used
        as a pot herb; -- called {Good King Henry}.
  
     {Horn mercury} (Min.), a mineral chloride of mercury, having
        a semitranslucent, hornlike appearance.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  quicksilver
       adj : liable to sudden unpredictable change; "erratic behavior";
             "fickle weather"; "mercurial twists of temperament"; "a
             quicksilver character, cool and willful at one moment,
             utterly fragile the next" [syn: {erratic}, {fickle}, {mercurial},
              {quicksilver(a)}]
       n : a heavy silvery toxic univalent and bivalent metallic
           element; the only metal that is liquid at ordinary
           temperatures [syn: {mercury}, {hydrargyrum}, {Hg}, {atomic
           number 80}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  126 Moby Thesaurus words for "quicksilver":
     April showers, Proteus, active, activist, activistic, alive,
     animated, antelope, arrow, aureate, blue darter, blue streak,
     bouncing, bouncy, brass, brassy, brazen, breezy, brisk, bronze,
     bronzy, bubbly, cannonball, chameleon, changeable, chipper,
     cloud shapes, copper, coppery, coquettish, courser, cupreous,
     cuprous, dart, eagle, ebullient, effervescent, electricity,
     energetic, express train, faddish, ferrous, ferruginous, fickle,
     flash, flighty, flirtatious, frisky, full of go, full of life,
     full of pep, gazelle, gilt, gold, gold-filled, gold-plated, golden,
     greased lightning, greyhound, hare, inconstant, iron, ironlike,
     jet plane, kaleidoscope, lead, leaden, light, lightning, live,
     lively, mercurial, mercurous, mercury, militant, moon, nickel,
     nickelic, nickeline, peppy, perky, pert, pewter, pewtery, rocket,
     rolling stone, scared rabbit, shifting sands, shot, silver,
     silver-plated, silvery, skittish, smacking, snappy, spanking,
     spirited, sprightly, spry, steel, steely, streak,
     streak of lightning, striped snake, swallow, the weather, thought,
     thunderbolt, tin, tinny, torrent, toying, undependable,
     unpredictable, unreliable, vacillating, versatile, vivacious,
     volatile, water, weather vane, weathercock, wheel of fortune,
     whirligig, wind, zingy
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  Quicksilver
       
           A {dBASE}-like compiler for {MS-DOS} from
          {WordTech}.
       
          (1995-05-11)