EFFLORESCE

vi to blossom forth.

2. effloresce ·vi to change on the surface, or throughout, to a whitish, mealy, or crystalline powder, from a gradual decomposition, ·esp. from the loss of water, on simple exposure to the air; as, glauber's salts, and many others, effloresce.

3. effloresce ·vi to become covered with a whitish crust or light crystallization, from a slow chemical change between some of the ingredients of the matter covered and an acid proceeding commonly from an external source; as, the walls of limestone caverns sometimes effloresce with nitrate of calcium in consequence of the action in consequence of nitric acid formed in the atmosphere.