a. and sb. Forms: 4 liquyd, 5–6 li-, lyquide, -yde, (5 lyquet, 6–7 liqued), 6– liquid. [a. OF. liquide, ad. L. liquid-us, f. liquēre to be liquid, cogn. with liquāre LIQUATE v., līquī to be liquid, lĭquor LIQUOR.]
A. adj.
I. 1. Said of a material substance in that condition (familiar as the normal condition of water, oil, alcohol, etc.) in which its particles move freely over each other (so that its masses have no determinate shape), but do not tend to separate as do those of a gas; not solid nor gaseous. Hence, composed of a substance in this condition.
1382. Wyclif, Ezek. xliv. 30. Alle liquyd [1388 moist] sacrifices, or fleetynge, as oyle, and hony, and syche.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 203. Fleuma vitreum was liquide fleuma & wiþ cooldnes it is congilid.
1494. Fabyan, Chron., VII. 373. Rosyn, grece, and other lyquet & brynyng stuffe.
1544. Phaër, Regim. Lyfe (1560), O iv b. Another devine medecine, in a liquide-fourme.
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. 29. Rosin of ye larche tre … is moyster or more liqued.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. ii. 6. Which feedes each living plant with liquid sap.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., I. i. 211. Decking with liquid pearle, the bladed grasse. Ibid. (1604), Oth., V. ii. 280. Whip me ye Diuels … Wash me in steepe-downe gulfes of Liquid fire.
1610. Willet, Hexapla Dan., 202. Windes doe not blowe so much vpon the solid earth, as vpon the liquid sea.
1667. Milton, P. L., I. 229. If it were Land that ever burn’d With solid, as the Lake with liquid fire.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 601. Down from his Head the liquid Odours ran.
1760–2. Goldsm., Cit. World, cvi. ¶ 4. The whole is liquid laudanum to my spirits.
1800. trans. Lagrange’s Chem., II. 113. Add a very small quantity of water, in order that the mixture may form a paste somewhat liquid.
1849. R. V. Dixon, Heat, I. 21. Liquid thermometers, may be applied to measure temperatures considerably above those at which the liquid filling them boils in the open air.
1863. Mary Howitt, F. Bremer’s Greece, II. xi. 1. With the taste of Nectar and colour of liquid gold.
b. In poetical and rhetorical lang. often used for: Watery.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. iii. 40. And anon behold The strong ribb’d Barke through liquid Mountaines cut.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 559. I will returne againe to my liquid iourney betwixt Mentz and Franckford vpon the river Mænus.
1657. Bp. H. King, Poems (1843), III. xiii. 103. All the Ship-wracks, and the liquid graves.
1725. Pope, Odyss., X. 58. Meanwhile our vessels plough the liquid plain.
1819. Wordsw., Waggoner, Concl. 36. While Grasmere smoothed her liquid plain The moving image to detain.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Voy. Eng., Wks. (Bohn), II. 11. The gond ship … gliding through liquid leagues.
1879. J. Burroughs, Locusts & Wild Honey (1884), 82. It [the strawberry] is the product of liquid May touched by the June sun.
c. occas. Of the eyes: Filled with tears.
1598. Rowlands, Betraying of Christ, 57. Her liquid eies stroue each t’exceed the other,… by teares her woe appeares.
1873. Black, Pr. Thule, iii. 36. Poems, over which fair eyes had grown full and liquid.
II. In various transf. and fig. senses.
2. Of light, fire, the air: Clear, transparent, bright (like pure water). [Cf. L. liquidus in poetry.]
1590. Spenser, F. Q., III. iv. 49. And with her pineons cleaves the liquid firmament.
1653. H. More, Antid. Ath., II. ii. (1712), 41. Though the Earth move floating in the liquid Heavens.
1688. Prior, Exodus, III. v. Why does he [the Sun] wake the correspondent Moon, And fill her willing Lamp with liquid Light?
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 378. They That wing the liquid Air, or swim the Sea.
1742. Gray, Ode on Spring, iii. The insect youth are on the wing, Eager to … float amid the liquid noon.
c. 1800. K. White, Poems (1837), 73. The liquid lustre of her fine blue eye.
1850. Kingsley, Alt. Locke, xiii. (1879), 163. The dark hazel eyes shone with a more liquid lustre.
1884. St. James’s Gaz., 10 May, 6/2. A youthful forehead and a pair of liquid eyes.
3. Of sounds: Flowing, pure and clear in tone; free from harshness or discord. Also in Phonetics, Of the nature of a ‘liquid’ (see B. 2).
a. 1637. B. Jonson, Eng. Gram. (1640), 47. It [R] is sounded firme in the beginning of the words, and more liquid in the middle, and ends: as in rarer, riper.
1646. Crashaw, Steps to Temple, etc. 105. Bathing in streames of liquid melodie.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, Ded. The many Liquid consonants are plac’d so Artfully, that they give a pleasing sound to the Words.
1733. Pope, Hor. Sat., II. i. 31. Lull with Amelia’s liquid name the Nine.
1752. Hume, Ess., xxi. Wks. 1854, III. 229. The Italian is the most liquid, smooth, and effeminate language that can possibly be imagined.
1797. Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, xi. (1824), 586. The liquid cadence, as it trembled and sank away, seemed to tell the dejection of no vulgar feelings.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, II. 404. Make liquid treble of that bassoon my throat.
1855. H. Spencer, Princ. Psychol. (1872), I. II. i. 149. Tones which are alike in pitch … are distinguishable by their … ringing or their liquid character.
1879. J. Burroughs, Locusts & Wild Honey (1884), 86. The liquid and gurgling notes of the bobolink.
1888. Sweet, Eng. Sounds, § 21. But those ‘vowellike’ or ‘liquid’ voiced consonants which are unaccompanied by buzz are often also syllabic.
† 4. Of proofs, exposition, etc.: Clear, evident, manifest. Obs.
1610. Donne, Pseudo-Martyr, 17. With vs it is euident and liquid enough.
a. 1619. Fotherby, Atheom., II. iii. § 3 (1622), 219. But into those that be learned, it is cleare enough and liquid.
1620. Wotton, in Reliq. (1672), 519. You had suspended your Judgement till more liquid proofs.
a. 1657. R. Loveday, Lett., cxxx. (1659), 236. My most liquid discoveries, as I thought, of undoubted truths, have so oft been confuted.
1657. W. Morice, Coena quasi Κοινὴ, xxii. 222. S. Augustine impressed himself especially to fight against [the Donatists], as is liquid through the whole torrent of his writings.
1685. H. More, Paralip. Prophet., 462. This is the clear and liquid reason why [etc.].
1726. Ayliffe, Parergon [305]. I have robbed my self of liquid Proof by my own Act.
b. Of an account or a debt: Undisputed. Now only in Scots Law, said of a debt that has been ascertained and constituted against the debtor, either by a written obligation, or by the decree of a court.
1660. Howell, Dict., s.v., To make accounts liquid, or cleer, liquider, arrester les comptes.
1681. Rycaut, trans. Gracian’s Critick, To Rdr. A Debt of One hundred thousand Pieces of Eight, which his Catholic Majesty owed unto my Father: The Demand was unquestionable, for the Account was liquid, and clearly stated by the Councel of the Exchequer.
1682. Scarlett, Exchanges, 120. To Discount … is good and sufficient payment, if it be of a due and liqued Debt.
1726. Ayliffe, Parergon, 135. Nor does it admit of any delay tho’ the Debt be entirely Liquid.
1731. Liquid sum [see LIQUIDATION 1].
1754. Erskine, Princ. Sc. Law (1809), 253. Inhibition may proceed … upon a liquid obligation.
1884. Sir R. Collier, in Law Times Rep., LI. 581/2. A claim by way of compensation is admissible when it is for a demand which is termed liquid.
5. Not fixed or stable. Of movement: Facile, unconstrained.
1835. I. Taylor, Spir. Despot., iv. 165. The liquid or convertible state in which we find the designations of office in the New Testament.
1867. Deutsch, Rem. (1874), 13. The liquid nature, so to speak, of its technical terms. They mean anything and everything.
1877. Pauer, Pianoforte Playing, 16. The task of rendering the five fingers of each hand fluent, or, as we may say, liquid.
6. Of assets, securities, etc.: Capable of being promptly converted into cash.
1879. Daily News, 26 May, 3/6. Investment in ‘liquid securities,’ or, in other words, those easily convertible into cash when necessity arises.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 5 May, 7/2. A company with sufficient capital to take over the bank’s liquid assets.
7. Comb.: liquid-solid a. (see quot.).
1862. H. Spencer, First Princ., II. xiii. § 100 (1875), 292. A liquid-solid aggregate, or, as we commonly call it, a plastic aggregate, will admit of internal redistribution with comparative facility.
B. sb.
1. A liquid substance (see A. 1). In pl. often = liquid food.
Liquids and gases are classed together as fluids: see FLUID.
1708. J. Philips, Cyder, I. 31. Be it thy Choice … To sit beneath her leafy Canopy, Quaffing rich Liquids.
1725. Watts, Logic, I. vi. § 4. Juice includes both substance and liquid.
1773–83. Hoole, Orl. Fur., XXII. 88. E’er his lips essay’d The moistening liquid.
1805. Med. Jrnl., XIV. 125. He refused to swallow liquids.
1839. R. S. Robinson, Naut. Steam Eng., 161. Steam when in contact with the liquid from which it is formed.
1842. A. Combe, Physiol. Digestion (ed. 4), 36. Thirst, or a desire for liquids.
1875. Fortnum, Majolica, vi. 58. The liquid of the bath must be thin.
1879. Thomson & Tait, Nat. Phil., I. I. § 320. We shall designate a mass which is absolutely incompressible, and absolutely devoid of resistance to change of shape, by the simple appellation of a liquid.
1895. Zangwill, Master, II. iii. 157. Popping corks and gurgling liquids.
b. Dutch liquid: see DUTCH a. 3 b.
2. Phonetics. A name applied to the sounds denoted by the letters l, m, n, r, or (by some writers) only to those denoted by l and r.
The name (L. liquidæ, sc. litteræ) is a literal translation of the Gr. ὑγρά (sc. στοιχεῖα) applied to λ, μ, ν, ρ, on account of their flowing and easy sound as compared with other consonants, or perh. as having an indeterminate or unstable character between consonant and vowel (cf. the application of ὑγρός to a vowel of variable quantity; also the term ἡμίφωνα ‘semi-vowels,’ applied to the ‘liquids’ and σ). A somewhat analogous term is the F. mouillé lit. ‘wet,’ used to denote the palatalized pronunciation of l and some other consonants.
1530. Palsgr., Introd., 23. Theyr consonantes be devyded in to mutes & liquides or semivocalles.
1611. Florio, Líquide, liquids, as L. M. N. R.
a. 1637. B. Jonson, Eng. Gram. (1640), 47. It [L] melteth in the sounding, and is therefore called a liquid, the tongue striking the root of the palate gently.
1710. Addison, Tatler, No. 163, ¶ 7. There is scarce a Consonant in it; I took care to make it run upon Liquids.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 88, ¶ 3. By tempering the mute consonants with liquids and semi-vowels.
1817. Byron, Beppo, xliv. With syllables which breathe of the sweet South, And gentle liquids gliding all so pat in.
3. Comb.: † liquid vessel, receptacles for liquids.
1649. New Haven Col. Rec. (1857), I. 458. The wormes would eat it [timber] so as it would be vnserviceable for making of liquid vessell.
Hence Liquidless a., without liquid.
1826. Blackw. Mag., XX. 397. Coleridge’s patent inkstand stood liquidless as a sand-bottle.
1902. Savannah Morning News, 31 March, 4/2. In these days of horseless carriages and wireless telegraphs the liquidless drink would not be marvelous.
