Adjacent Words

Volatile definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

VOL'ATILE, a. [L. volatilis, from volo, to fly.]
1. Flying; passing through the air on wings, or by the buoyant force of the atmosphere.
2. Having the power to fly; as birds are volatile animals.
3. Capable of wasting away, or of easily passing into the aeriform state. Thus substances which affect the smell with pungent or fragrant odors, as musk, hartshorn and essential oils, are called volatile substances, because they waste away on exposure to the atmosphere. Alcohol and ether are called volatile liquids for a similar reason, and because they easily pass into the state of vapor on the application of heat. On the contrary, gold is a fixed substance, because it does not suffer waste even when exposed to the heat of a furnace; and oils are called fixed, when they do not evaporate on simple exposure to the atmosphere.
4. Lively; gay; full of spirit; airy; hence, fickle; apt to change; as a volatile temper.
You are as giddy and volatile as ever.
VOL'ATILE, n. A winged animal. [little used.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: evaporating readily at normal temperatures and pressures; "volatile oils"; "volatile solvents" [ant: nonvolatile, nonvolatilisable, nonvolatilizable]
2: liable to lead to sudden change or violence; "an explosive issue"; "a volatile situation with troops and rioters eager for a confrontation" [syn: explosive, volatile]
3: marked by erratic changeableness in affections or attachments; "fickle friends"; "a flirt's volatile affections" [syn: fickle, volatile]
4: tending to vary often or widely; "volatile stocks"; "volatile emotions" n
1: a volatile substance; a substance that changes readily from solid or liquid to a vapor; "it was heated to evaporate the volatiles"

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Etymology: French, from Latin volatilis, from volare to fly Date: 1605 1. readily vaporizable at a relatively low temperature 2. flying or having the power to fly 3. a. lighthearted, lively b. easily aroused <volatile suspicions> c. tending to erupt into violence ; explosive <a volatile temper> 4. a. unable to hold the attention fixed because of an inherent lightness or fickleness of disposition b. characterized by or subject to rapid or unexpected change <a volatile market> 5. difficult to capture or hold permanently ; evanescent, transitory • volatileness noun • volatility noun II. noun Date: 1686 a volatile substance

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & n. --adj. 1 evaporating rapidly (volatile salts). 2 changeable, fickle. 3 lively, light-hearted. 4 apt to break out into violence. 5 transient. --n. a volatile substance. Phrases and idioms: volatile oil = essential oil. Derivatives: volatileness n. volatility n. Etymology: OF volatil or L volatilis f. volare volat- fly

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Volatile Vol"a*tile, a. [F. volatil, L. volatilis, fr. volare to fly, perhaps akin to velox swift, E. velocity. Cf. Volley.] 1. Passing through the air on wings, or by the buoyant force of the atmosphere; flying; having the power to fly. [Obs.] 2. Capable of wasting away, or of easily passing into the a["e]riform state; subject to evaporation. Note: Substances which affect the smell with pungent or fragrant odors, as musk, hartshorn, and essential oils, are called volatile substances, because they waste away on exposure to the atmosphere. Alcohol and ether are called volatile liquids for a similar reason, and because they easily pass into the state of vapor on the application of heat. On the contrary, gold is a fixed substance, because it does not suffer waste, even when exposed to the heat of a furnace; and oils are called fixed when they do not evaporate on simple exposure to the atmosphere. 3. Fig.: Light-hearted; easily affected by circumstances; airy; lively; hence, changeable; fickle; as, a volatile temper. You are as giddy and volatile as ever. --Swift. Volatile alkali. (Old Chem.) See under Alkali. Volatile liniment, a liniment composed of sweet oil and ammonia, so called from the readiness with which the latter evaporates. Volatile oils. (Chem.) See Essential oils, under Essential.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Volatile Vol"a*tile, n. [Cf. F. volatile.] A winged animal; wild fowl; game. [Obs.] --Chaucer. --Sir T. Browne.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. A situation that is volatile is likely to change suddenly and unexpectedly. The international oil markets have been highly volatile since the early 1970s... = unstable ADJ • volatility He is keen to see a general reduction in arms sales given the volatility of the region. = instability 2. If someone is volatile, their mood often changes quickly. He has a volatile temper. ADJ 3. A volatile liquid or substance is one that will quickly change into a gas. (TECHNICAL) It's thought that the blast occurred when volatile chemicals exploded. ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Evaporable, vaporizable, vaporable. 2. Airy, gay, lively, jolly, sprightly, vivacious, buoyant, full of spirit, jocund. 3. Fickle, changeable, giddy, inconstant, flighty, reckless, capricious, unsteady, whimsical, humorsome, wild, hare-brained.

Moby Thesaurus

adrift, afloat, agitable, airy, alternating, amorphous, birdbrained, birdwitted, bouncy, brittle, bubbly, buoyant, capricious, changeable, changeful, charged, coquettish, corruptible, deciduous, desultory, deviable, dizzy, downy, dying, eccentric, edgy, effervescent, ephemeral, erratic, eruptive, ethereal, evanescent, evaporable, evaporative, expansive, explosive, faddish, fading, fast and loose, featherbrained, feathery, fickle, fitful, fleeting, flickering, flighty, flippant, flirtatious, flitting, fluctuating, fluffy, fly-by-night, flying, foamy, fragile, frail, freakish, frivolous, frothy, fugacious, fugitive, giddy, gossamery, hair-trigger, impermanent, impetuous, imponderous, impulsive, inconsistent, inconstant, indecisive, infirm, insubstantial, irregular, irresolute, irresponsible, leger, light, light as air, light-minded, lighter than vanity, lubricious, mazy, mercurial, momentary, moody, mortal, mousse, mutable, nondurable, nonpermanent, passing, perishable, protean, quicksilver, rambling, resilient, restless, roving, scatterbrained, sensitive, shallow, shallow-headed, shallow-minded, shallow-pated, shallow-witted, shapeless, shifting, shifty, short-lived, shuffling, skittery, skittish, souffle, spasmodic, spineless, startlish, superficial, temperamental, temporal, temporary, tense, ticklish, toying, transient, transitive, transitory, unaccountable, uncertain, uncontrolled, undependable, undisciplined, undurable, unenduring, unfixed, unheavy, unpredictable, unprofound, unreliable, unrestrained, unsettled, unstable, unstable as water, unstaid, unsteadfast, unsteady, vacillating, vagrant, vaporable, vaporescent, vaporizable, vaporizing, variable, versatile, vicissitudinary, vicissitudinous, volatilizable, wandering, wanton, wavering, wavery, wavy, wayward, weightless, whimsical, wishy-washy, yeasty