Sublimation

3 definitions found

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

  Sublimation \Sub"li*ma`tion\, n. [LL. sublimatio: cf. F.
     sublimation.]
     1. (Chem.) The act or process of subliming, or the state or
        result of being sublimed.
        [1913 Webster]
  


     2. The act of heightening or improving; exaltation;
        elevation; purification.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. That which is sublimed; the product of a purifying
        process.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Religion is the perfection, refinement, and
              sublimation of morality.              --South.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  sublimation
       n 1: (chemistry) a change directly from the solid to the gaseous
            state without becoming liquid
       2: (psychology) modifying the natural expression of an impulse
          or instinct (especially a sexual one) to one that is
          socially acceptable

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

  79 Moby Thesaurus words for "sublimation":
     aeration, aerification, alienation, atomization, autism,
     autistic thinking, avoidance mechanism, blame-shifting, block,
     blocking, bolting, clarification, colature, compensation,
     conversion, decompensation, defense mechanism, dereism,
     dereistic thinking, destructive distillation, displacement,
     dissociation, distillation, edulcoration, elution, elutriation,
     emotional insulation, escape, escape into fantasy,
     escape mechanism, escapism, essentialization, etherealization,
     etherification, evaporation, exhalation, extraction, fantasizing,
     fantasy, filtering, filtration, flight, fluidization,
     fractionation, fumigation, gasification, isolation, leaching,
     lixiviation, mental block, negativism, overcompensation,
     percolation, projection, psychotaxis, purification,
     rationalization, refinement, repression, resistance, riddling,
     screening, separation, sieving, sifting, smoking,
     sociological adjustive reactions, spiritualization, steaming,
     straining, substitution, suppression, symbolization, vaporization,
     volatilization, winnowing, wish-fulfillment fantasy,
     wishful thinking, withdrawal