corrosive

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: cor=ro=sive

CIDE DICTIONARY

corrosive, a. [Cf. F. corrosif.].

•  Eating away; having the power of gradually wearing, changing, or destroying the texture or substance of a body; as, the corrosive action of an acid.  [1913 Webster]
•  Having the quality of fretting or vexing.  [1913 Webster]

  "Care is no cure, but corrosive."  [1913 Webster]

Corrosive sublimate (Chem.), mercuric chloride, HgCl2; so called because obtained by sublimation, and because of its harsh irritating action on the body tissue. Usually it is in the form of a heavy, transparent, crystalline substance, easily soluble, and of an acrid, burning taste. It is a virulent poison, a powerful antiseptic, and an excellent antisyphilitic; called also mercuric bichloride. It is to be carefully distinguished from calomel, the mild chloride of mercury.

corrosive, n. 

•  That which has the quality of eating or wearing away gradually.  [1913 Webster]

  "[Corrosives] act either directly, by chemically destroying the part, or indirectly by causing inflammation and gangrene."  [1913 Webster]
•  That which has the power of fretting or irritating.  [1913 Webster]

  "Such speeches . . . are grievous corrosives."

OXFORD DICTIONARY

corrosive, adj. & n.
--adj. tending to corrode or consume.
--n. a corrosive substance.

Idiom

corrosive sublimate mercuric chloride, a strong acid poison, used as a fungicide, antiseptic, etc.

Derivative

corrosively adv. corrosiveness n.

Etymology

ME f. OF corosif -ive (as CORRODE)

THESAURUS

corrosive

ablative, acerb, acerbate, acerbic, acid, acidic, acidulent, acidulous, acrid, acrimonious, actual cautery, angry, baleful, baneful, biodegradable, biting, bitter, brand, brand iron, branding iron, caustic, cauter, cauterant, cauterizer, cautery, corroding, corrupting, corruptive, counterproductive, cutting, damaging, deadly, decomposable, decomposing, degradable, deleterious, detrimental, dilapidated, disadvantageous, discontented, disintegrable, disintegrated, disintegrating, disintegrative, disjunctive, disruptive, disserviceable, distressing, driving, effective, electrocautery, eroding, erosive, escharotic, feeling evil, forceful, forcible, gutsy, harmful, hot iron, hurtful, imperative, impressive, incisive, injurious, keen, lethal, lunar caustic, malefic, malevolent, malign, malignant, mischievous, moldering, mordacious, mordant, moxa, nervous, noisome, noxious, ominous, out of humor, out of sorts, out of temper, penetrating, pernicious, piercing, poignant, poisonous, potential cautery, powerful, prejudicial, punchy, radium, ravaged, resolvent, ruinous, scatheful, scathing, scorching, sensational, separative, sharp, sinewed, sinewy, slashing, solvent, stabbing, stinging, striking, strong, tart, telling, toxic, trenchant, venenate, veneniferous, venenous, venomous, vicious, vigorous, virulent, vital, withering, worn

ROGET THESAURUS

corrosive

Badness

N badness, hurtfulness, virulence, evil doer, bane, plague spot, evil star, ill wind, hoodoo, Jonah, snake in the grass, skeleton in the closet, amari aliquid, thorn in the side, malignity, malevolence, tender mercies, ill-treatment, annoyance, molestation, abuse, oppression, persecution, outrage, misusage, injury, knockout drops, badness, peccancy, abomination, painfulness, pestilence, guilt, depravity, hurtful, harmful, scathful, baneful, baleful, injurious, deleterious, detrimental, noxious, pernicious, mischievous, full of mischief, mischief-making, malefic, malignant, nocuous, noisome, prejudicial, disserviceable, disadvantageous, wide-wasting, unlucky, sinister, obnoxious, untoward, disastrous, oppressive, burdensome, onerous, malign, corrupting &c (corrupt), virulent, venomous, envenomed, corrosive, poisonous, deadly, destructive, inauspicious, bad, ill, arrant, as bad as bad can be, dreadful, horrid, horrible, dire, rank, peccant, foul, fulsome, rotten, rotten at the core, vile, base, villainous, mean, injured, deteriorated, unsatisfactory, exceptionable indifferent, below par, illcontrived, ill-conditioned, wretched, sad, grievous, deplorable, lamentable, pitiful, pitiable, woeful, evil, wrong, depraved, shocking, reprehensible, hateful, hateful as a toad, abominable, detestable, execrable, cursed, accursed, confounded, damned, damnable, infernal, diabolic, unadvisable, unprofitable, incompetent, irremediable, badly, wrong, ill, to one's cost, where the shoe pinches, bad is the best: the worst come to the worst, herba mala presto cresco, wrongs unredressed or insults unavenged.

Physical Energy

N energy, physical energy, force, power, keenness, intensity, vigor, strength, elasticity, go, high pressure, fire, rush, acrimony, acritude, causiticity, virulence, poignancy, harshness, severity, edge, point, pungency, cantharides, seasoning, activity, agitation, effervescence, ferment, fermentation, ebullition, splutter, perturbation, stir, bustle, voluntary energy, quicksilver, resolution, exertion, excitation, strong, energetic, forcible, active, intense, deep-dyed, severe, keen, vivid, sharp, acute, incisive, trenchant, brisk, rousing, irritation, poignant, virulent, caustic, corrosive, mordant, harsh, stringent, double-edged, double-shotted, double- distilled, drastic, escharotic, racy, potent, radioactive, strongly, fortiter in re, with telling effect, the steam is up, vires acquirit eundo, the race by vigor not by vaunts is won.