DISSOLVE, verb transitive dizzolv. [Latin , to loose, to free.]

1. To melt; to liquefy; to convert from a solid or fixed state to a fluid state, by means of heat or moisture.

To desolve by heat, is to loosen the parts of a solid body and render them fluid or easily movable. Thus ice is converted into water by dissolution.

To dissolve in a liquid, is to separate the parts of a solid substance, and cause them to mix with the fluid; or to reduce a solid substance into minute parts which may be sustained in that fluid. Thus water dissolves salt and sugar.

2. To disunite; to break; to separate.

Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness? 2 Peter 3:11.

3. To loose; to disunite.

Down fell the duke, his joints dissolved.

4. To loose the ties or bonds of any thing; to destroy an connected system; as, to dissolve a government; to dissolve a corporation.

5. To loose; to break; as, to dissolve a league; to dissolve the bonds of friendship.

6. To break up; to cause to separate; to put an end to; as, to dissolve the parliament; to dissolve an assembly.

7. To clear; to solve; to remove; to dissipate, or to explain; as, to dissolve doubts. We usually say, to solve doubts and difficulties.

8. To break; to destroy; as, to dissolve a charm, spell or enchantment.

9. To loosen or relax; to make languid; as dissolved in pleasure.

10. To waste away; to consume; to cause to vanish or perish.

Thou dissolvest my substance. Job 30:1.

11. To annul; to rescind; as, to dissolve an injunction.

DISSOLVE, verb intransitive dizzolv.

1. To be melted; to be converted from a solid to a fluid state; as, sugar dissolves in water.

2. To sink away; to lose strength and firmness.

3. To melt away in pleasure; to become soft or languid.

4. To fall asunder; to crumble; to be broken. A government may dissolve by its own weight or extent.

5. To waste away; to perish; to be decomposed. Flesh dissolves by putrefaction.

6. To come to an end by a separation of parts.