refrigerant
See also: réfrigérant
English
Etymology
Latin refrīgerāns, present participle of refrīgerō (“I cool, I refresh”).
Noun
refrigerant (plural refrigerants)
- A substance used in a heat cycle that undergoes a phase change between gas and liquid to allow the cooling, as in refrigerators, air conditioners, etc.
- That which makes cool or cold, such as a medicine for allaying the symptoms of fever.
- 1783, Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, Dublin: Whitestone et al., Volume 2, Lecture 32, p. 403,
- […] never give warning that you are about to be pathetic; and call upon your hearers, as is sometimes done, to follow you in the attempt. This almost never fails to prove a refrigerant to passion.
- 1869, Oliver Wendell Holmes, “Cinders from the Ashes” in Pages from an Old Volume of Life, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1883, p. 245,
- […] taking a blue and white soda-powder, [she] mingled the same in water, and encouraged me to drink the result. It might be a specific for seasickness, but it was not for home-sickness. The fiz was a mockery, and the saline refrigerant struck a colder chill to my despondent heart.
- 1783, Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, Dublin: Whitestone et al., Volume 2, Lecture 32, p. 403,
Translations
substance undergoing phase change
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that which makes cool
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See also
- coolant
Adjective
refrigerant (comparative more refrigerant, superlative most refrigerant)
- (obsolete) That cools or freezes; providing relief from heat or fever.
- 1627, Francis Bacon, Sylua Syluarum: or A Naturall Historie in Ten Centuries, London: William Lee, VIII. Century, p. 204,
- This Experiment may be transferred vnto the Cure of Gangrenes, either Comming of themselues, or induced by too much Applying of Opiates: Wherein you must beware of Dry Heat, and resort to Things that are Refrigerant, with an Inward Warmth, and Vertue of Cherishing.
- 1788, John Hawkesworth, “Laudes Dargelli, or, Verses on the Dargle” in The Poetical Works of John Hawkesworth, Dublin, p. 25,
- Here on a bank, refrigerant seat,
- Screen’d from the Sun’s o’ercoming heat,
- Some stretch’d at ease the hours employ,
- In Bacchus’s unbounded joy,
- 1859, Richard Francis Burton, The Lake Regions of Central Equatorial Africa, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 29, Chapter 2, pp. 54-55,
- They employ the coco-nut extensively; […] This immoderate use of the fruit is, according to the people, far from wholesome: it is considered, by its refrigerant properties, to cause rheumatic pains […]
- 1883, Fielde, Adele Marion, “兩/两 (líang)”, in A Pronouncing and Defining Dictionary of the Swatow Dialect, Arranged According to Syllables and Tones, Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press, page 350:
- [He] is robust and can safely take refrigerant food.
- 1627, Francis Bacon, Sylua Syluarum: or A Naturall Historie in Ten Centuries, London: William Lee, VIII. Century, p. 204,
Catalan
Noun
refrigerant m (plural refrigerants)
- coolant, refrigerant
Verb
refrigerant
- present participle of refrigerar
Latin
Verb
refrīgerant
- third-person plural present active indicative of refrīgerō