a. and sb. [ad. L. solvent-, solvens, pres. pple. of solvĕre SOLVE v.]
A. adj. 1. Able to pay all one’s debts or liabilities.
1653. H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., lxxviii. 315. Certain Chineses, who were not men solvent, but became bankrupts.
1664. Addit. to Life Mede, M.’s Wks. (1672), p. xxxvi. Mr. Mede began … to refuse…, and objected, How shall I be able to be solvent in convenient time?
1698. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), IV. 379. The commons read the bill … for discovery of solvent prisoners estates.
1812. Crabbe, Borough, xxiii. 49. They would be solvent, and deplore a debt.
1846. Grote, Greece (1862), II. 312. A solvent man capable of … fulfilling a contract.
1885. Law Times Rep., LIII. 484/1. If the plaintiff in England had been solvent, no security would have been required.
transf. 1667. Ormonde MSS., in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 45. Sir Daniel Bellingham … is … to issue such solvent assignments as they may receive speedy satisfaction.
1674. Essex Papers (Camden), I. 183. ’Tis probable yt most of ye solvent Arrears are already gather’d.
Comb. 1852. Mundy, Antipodes (1857), 35. A solvent looking gentleman, solus in a buggy, is the very thing for a highwayman.
2. Dissolving; causing solution.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 9. Lightening too, which being of a very subtile nature … and solvent of the parts of bodies.
1791. J. Jones, in Beddoes, On Calculus (1793), 32. The extraordinary efficacy of the sal sodæ I had seen in the last case, induced me to try its solvent powers in this.
1807. Phil. Trans., XCVII. 146. The excretory ducts of the glands, which secrete the solvent liquor.
1832. Brewster, Nat. Magic, xii. 298. The disintegrating and solvent powers of chemical agents.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 122. The comparative ease with which limestone yields to the solvent action of water.
fig. 1875. Maine, Hist. Inst., xi. 329. Among the most powerful solvent influences were certain philosophical theories.
3. Helping to solve or explain.
1872. Tulloch, Rational Theol., I. i. 34. The most significant and solvent of all the rational principles enunciated by Arminianism.
B. sb. 1. A substance (usually a liquid) having the power of dissolving other substances.
1671. Boyle, Usef. Nat. Philos., II. II. 18. By a substitution of burnt Allom for Vitriol,… we made Solvents for Silver, as good as theirs.
1681. trans. Willis’ Rem. Med. Wks., Vocab., Solvent, That which dissolveth or openeth the parts of the matter to be wrought upon.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, I. 159. Water … is found the most universal solvent of the food of man and other animals.
1782. Phil. Trans., LXXIII. 51. If formed by solution, they as constantly retain a portion of their solvent or precipitant.
1827. Faraday, Chem. Manip., vi. 187. Some of the acids frequently act as mere solvents.
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sci. (1879), I. ii. 43. The solvent of the iodine, is perfectly transparent.
b. fig. A dissolving or disintegrating influence.
1841. Emerson, Ess., Intellect, Wks. (Bohn), I. 143. Silence is a solvent that destroys personality.
1870. E. Peacock, Ralf Skirl., II. 5. Fine phrases which have acted as solvents upon … unreasoning Whiggism and Toryism.
1886. S. Smith, in Contemp. Rev., July, 72. The great solvent of Indian caste prejudice is Western thought.
2. Something that solves, explains or settles.
1865. Lecky, Ration. (1878), I. 292. Those who, perceiving … yet undefined discoveries,… imagine that they will prove a universal solvent.
1871. R. H. Hutton, Ess. (1877), I. 43. How the absence of theistic faith tends … to make philosophy the universal solvent of fact.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer (1891), 317. Mr. Neuchamp … was compelled to employ that only universal solvent, a cash payment.
3. A laxative; a loosener.
1815. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1818), I. 314. Had I addressed you a century ago, I could have made an ample history. Amongst scores of infallible panaceas, I should have recommended the woodlouse as a solvent and aperient.
1823. Lamb, Elia, Ser. II. Pref. He took it [tobacco], he would say, as a solvent of speech.
4. A person able to pay all his debts.
1825. W. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1853), 354. Every insolvent blames a solvent, that will not lend him money.
Hence Solvently adv.
1872. Bushnell, Serm. Living Subj., 437. That personal, supernatural, life-giving spirit, that will … touch, as it were solvently, all the secret bonds and propagative chains of causes.
