suffuse

English

WOTD – 18 October 2007

Etymology

From Latin suffundō.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /səˈfjuːz/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːz

Verb

suffuse (third-person singular simple present suffuses, present participle suffusing, simple past and past participle suffused)

1. (transitive) To spread through or over something, especially as a liquid, colour or light; to bathe.

   The entire room was suffused with a golden light.

2. (transitive, figuratively) To spread through or over in the manner of a liquid.

   The warmth suffused his cold fingers.

   • 1983, Robert Ferro, The Family of Max Desir, page 87:

     Marie's face was suffused with a sleepy, appreciative look.

   • 2019 March 28, David Sims, “A Portrait of the Artist as a Perpetually Stoned Beach Bum”, in The Atlantic‎^[1]:

     His newest work, The Beach Bum, shares a gauzy neon aesthetic and Florida setting with Spring Breakers, and it’s marked by the usual plethora of drug use, free love, and pirate’s-life-for-me lawlessness that suffuses every Korine movie.

3. (transitive) To pour underneath.

Usage notes

• The verb is often used in the passive voice.

Synonyms

• diffuse

Derived terms

• suffusate
• suffusion
• suffusive

Related terms

• infuse

Translations

to spread through or over something, especially as a liquid, colour or light

• Bulgarian: заливам (bg) (zalivam), разстилам се (razstilam se)
• Dutch: bedekken (nl), overgieten (nl)
• German: überziehen (de), bedecken (de), durchfluten, erfüllen (de)
• Portuguese: infundir (pt)
• Spanish: repartir (es)
• Tocharian B: snätk-
• Ukrainian: заливати (zalyvaty), покривати (pokryvaty), наповнювати (napovnjuvaty)

to spread through or over in the manner of a liquid

• German: durchziehen (de), überziehen (de), bedecken (de)
• Spanish: repartir (es)

Adjective

suffuse (comparative more suffuse, superlative most suffuse)

1. Suffused; diffuse.
   • 1912, New York State Museum, Annual Report, page 243:

     This limonite-colored mud is most often very suffuse and only faintly apparent.

   • 2014, Rita Petrini, Through the Curtain of Time and Space, →ISBN:

     Most of us mortals choose a very suffuse, dim light to have in our room, others push the switch to the maximum.

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

suffuse

1. third-person singular past historic of suffondere

Etymology 2

Participle

suffuse f pl

1. feminine plural of suffuso

Latin

Participle

suffūse

1. vocative masculine singular of suffūsus