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Definitions

sublimate

[suhb-luh-meyt, suhb-luh-mit, -meyt] / ˈsʌb ləˌmeɪt, ˈsʌb lə mɪt, -ˌmeɪt /
VERB
purify
Synonyms
Antonyms


VERB
divert
Synonyms


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

It almost feels like some kind of test, where you are forced to sublimate your wishes and, perhaps, your self respect.

From MarketWatch Feb. 5, 2026

“You have to sublimate your own ego to some extent.”

From Los Angeles Times Mar. 22, 2023

Halloween may be over, but if you ask me carving a gourd still seems like a good way to sublimate creeping dread.

From Slate Nov. 4, 2022

Dexter, too, has taught himself to sublimate his more extreme impulses; the parallels can seem uncomfortably apt.

From New York Times Nov. 2, 2021

It is to be hoped the claim that corrosive sublimate is an efficient antiseptic in the proportion of 1:10,000 may prove well founded.

From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various

He sublimates by focusing on new fabrication methods and by researching casting and molding techniques.

From The Wall Street Journal Apr. 27, 2026

"Because Martian air is so thin and the temperatures so cold, water-ice snow sublimates, or becomes a gas, before it even touches the ground. Dry-ice snow actually does reach the ground," NASA's website states.

From Salon May 16, 2025

Hoss, whose quiet, sympathetic gaze can register even the subtlest shifts in emotional temperature, here sublimates her star persona in much the same way that Sharon represses her own needs.

From Los Angeles Times Oct. 6, 2022

The tiny blood siphons are attracted by the carbon dioxide that sublimates off the dry ice, like breath exhaled from a potential host.

From Slate Jun. 27, 2017

These sublimates disappear in the flame of reduction, but without communicating any color to it.

From A System of Instruction in the Practical Use of the Blowpipe Being A Graduated Course Of Analysis For The Use Of Students And All Those Engaged In The Examination Of Metallic Combinations by Anonymous

The ecstasies of attraction are sublimated into their long conversations about Boethius and Hildegard von Bingen, or about the suddenly debatable issues of contraception and clerical celibacy.

From The Wall Street Journal May 8, 2026

The 12-foot-long cabinetlike work is the latest in the series that Peters calls “impossible monuments”: installations made out of disparate, significant materials that explore overlooked or sublimated matters of import.

From Seattle Times Jun. 20, 2024

This could be the anthem animating the subconscious of Black Twitter, one of sublimated and disaffected affections .

From Los Angeles Times May 10, 2024

Materials are sublimated in a vacuum under heat supply, i.e. they are converted from a solid to a gaseous state and condense on the substrate surface.

From Science Daily Mar. 14, 2024

This woman who was so down to earth and practical in all other aspects of life sublimated her childhood passion and lived it tragically.

From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende

In earlier work, she showed that sublimating CO2 ice can trigger debris flows that cut deep channels along crater walls.

From Science Daily Oct. 16, 2025

Yet they have enough in common that one might think they could be friends: Each is frustrated with life, work, their domestic arrangements, their parents; depressed; and sublimating their anger except as regards the other.

From Los Angeles Times Apr. 10, 2023

I suggested that perhaps in an age of digital streaming, streetwear had replaced record collecting, sublimating whatever obsessive, completist, seemingly male-specific tendencies that were once reserved for rare Nirvana EPs and Kanye’s earliest mixtapes.

From New York Times Sep. 3, 2018

Not only do they prevent solid ice from sublimating into vapor, they also shield planets from harmful radiation and help regulate surface temperatures within a stable range.

From Scientific American May 30, 2017

“You’re just sublimating your own frustration with my income.”

From "Paper Towns" by John Green




Vocabulary lists containing sublimate


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