dilute

From Latin dīlūtus, from dīluere (“to wash away, dissolve, cause to melt, dilute”), from dī-, dis- (“away, apart”) + luere (“to wash”). See lave, and compare deluge.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /daɪˈljuːt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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• (US) IPA^(key): /daɪˈlut/, /dɪˈlut/
• Rhymes: -uːt

dilute (third-person singular simple present dilutes, present participle diluting, simple past and past participle diluted)

1. (transitive) To make thinner by adding solvent to a solution, especially by adding water.
   • 1712, Richard Blackmore, Creation: A Philosophical Poem:

     Mix their watery store / With the chyle's current, and dilute it more.

2. (transitive) To weaken, especially by adding a foreign substance.
   • 1704, I[saac] N[ewton], “[The First Book of Opticks. Part I.] ”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin] Walford, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC, page 36:

     For if these Colours be diluted and weakened by the Mixture of any adventitious light, the distance between the places of the Paper will not be so great.

   • 1856, L. S. Lavenu, chapter XXXIII, in Erlesmere; or, Contrasts of Character‎^[1], volume 1, London: Smith, Elder & Co., page 336:

     “Stay a little.”
     “Not another second: language and discussion dilute thought; I will say no more.”

   • 1980 August 30, Jil Clark, quoting Jane, “Gays Talk About Registration and the Draft”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 6, page 9:

     It's healthy to have people in the military who would perhaps rather be somewhere else; they can dilute the more gung-ho military types.

3. (transitive, stock market) To cause the value of individual shares or the stake of a shareholder to decrease by increasing the total number of shares.
4. (intransitive) To become attenuated, thin, or weak.

   It dilutes easily.

• condense
• concentrate

• diluent
• dilutant
• dilution
• dilutory
• diluvium
• dilutable

dilute (comparative more dilute, superlative most dilute)

1. Having a low concentration.

   Clean the panel with a dilute, neutral cleaner.

2. Weak; reduced in strength by dilution; diluted.
3. Of an animal: having a lighter-coloured coat than is usual.

   a dilute calico

   a cat with a dilute tortoiseshell coat

• dilute Russell's viper venom time

dilute (plural dilutes)

1. An animal having a lighter-coloured coat than is usual.
   • 2000, Joe Stahlkuppe, American Pit Bull Terrier Handbook, page 131:

     On average, blues and other dilutes have weaker coats and skin problems seem more prevalent in the dilutes.

• Concentration on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• dilate

• “dilute”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “dilute”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

dīlūte

1. vocative masculine singular of dīlūtus