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suffuse

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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English

WOTD – 18 October 2007

Etymology

From Latin suffundō.

Pronunciation

Verb

suffuse (third-person singular simple present suffuses, present participle suffusing, simple past and past participle suffused)

  1. (transitive) To spread through or over (something), especially as a liquid, colour or light; to bathe.
    The entire room was suffused with a golden light.
  2. (transitive, figuratively) To spread through or over in the manner of a liquid.
    The warmth suffused his cold fingers.
    • 1983, Robert Ferro, The Family of Max Desir, page 87:
      Marie's face was suffused with a sleepy, appreciative look.
    • 2019 March 28, David Sims, “A Portrait of the Artist as a Perpetually Stoned Beach Bum”, in The Atlantic‎:
      His newest work, The Beach Bum, shares a gauzy neon aesthetic and Florida setting with Spring Breakers, and it’s marked by the usual plethora of drug use, free love, and pirate’s-life-for-me lawlessness that suffuses every Korine movie.
  3. (transitive) To pour underneath.

Usage notes

  • The verb is often used in the passive voice.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

suffuse (comparative more suffuse, superlative most suffuse)

  1. Suffused; diffuse.
    • 1912, New York State Museum, Annual Report, page 243:
      This limonite-colored mud is most often very suffuse and only faintly apparent.
    • 2014, Rita Petrini, Through the Curtain of Time and Space, →ISBN:
      Most of us mortals choose a very suffuse, dim light to have in our room, others push the switch to the maximum.
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Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

suffuse

  1. third-person singular past historic of suffondere

Etymology 2

Participle

suffuse f pl

  1. feminine plural of suffuso

Latin

Participle

suffūse

  1. vocative masculine singular of suffūsus

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