Adjacent Words

Quicksilver definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

QUICK'SILVER, n. [that is, living silver, argentum vivum, so called from its fluidity.]
Mercury, a metal found both native and in the state of ore, in mines, in various parts of the world, and so remarkably fusible as to be congealable only with the intense cold indicated by 39 degrees or 40 degrees below zero, on Fahrenheit's thermometer. It is the heaviest of the metals, next to platina and gold. It is used in various arts and in medicine.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: 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] n
1: a heavy silvery toxic univalent and bivalent metallic element; the only metal that is liquid at ordinary temperatures [syn: mercury, quicksilver, hydrargyrum, Hg, atomic number 80]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Date: before 12th century mercury 2a II. adjective Date: 1655 resembling or suggestive of quicksilver; especially mercurial 3

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 mercury. 2 mobility of temperament or mood. --v.tr. coat (a mirror-glass) with an amalgam of tin.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

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. 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, ect. 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]. 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. 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. 4. A carrier of tidings; a newsboy; a messenger; hence, also, a newspaper. --Sir J. Stephen. ``The monthly Mercuries.'' --Macaulay. 5. Sprightly or mercurial quality; spirit; mutability; fickleness. [Obs.] He was so full of mercury that he could not fix long in any friendship, or to any design. --Bp. Burnet. 6. (Bot.) A plant (Mercurialis annua), of the Spurge family, the leaves of which are sometimes used for spinach, in Europe. 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. Dog's mercury (Bot.), Mercurialis perennis, a perennial plant differing from M. 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.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

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. Quicksilver horizon, a mercurial artificial horizon. See under Horizon. Quicksilver water, a solution of mercury nitrate used in artificial silvering; quick water.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. Quicksilver is the same as mercury. (OLD-FASHIONED) 2. Quicksilver movements or changes are very fast and unpredictable. ...her quicksilver changes of mood. ADJ: ADJ n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Mercury, hydrargyrum.

Moby Thesaurus

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