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Capable of being resolved into constituent elements.

To separate the constituent parts of; to resolve into original elements; to set free from previously existing forms of chemical combination; to bring to dissolution; to rot or decay.

The act or process of resolving the constituent parts of a compound body or substance into its elementary parts; separation into constituent part; analysis; the decay or dissolution consequent on the removal or alteration of some of the ingredients of a compound; disintegration; as, the decomposition of wood, rocks, et…

To reduce to constituent parts; to decompose. It divides and decompounds objects into . . . parts. Hazlitt.

A hydrocarbon radical, C10H21, never existing alone, but regarded as the characteristic constituent of a number of compounds of the paraffin series.

An exact enunciation of the constituents which make up the logical essence.

Having the constituent parts massed or crowded together; close; compact; thick; containing much matter in a small space; heavy; opaque; as, a dense crowd; a dense forest; a dense fog. All sorts of bodies, firm and fluid, dense and rare. Ray. To replace the cloudy barrier dense. Cowper.

To unbuild; to pull or tear down; to separate virulently into its constituent parts; to break up the structure and organic existence of; to demolish. But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves. Ex. xxxiv. 13.

The act of defining a concept or notion by giving its essential constituents.

Etym: [NL., lit., diabetes], the form of diabetes in which the urine contains no abnormal constituent.

The process by which a compound body breaks up into simpler constituents; -- said particularly of the action of heat on gaseous or volatile substances; as, the dissociation of the sulphur molecules; the dissociation of ammonium chloride into hydrochloric acid and ammonia.

n (Chem.), the distillation, especially of complex solid substances, so that the ultimate constituents are separated or evolved in new compounds, -- usually requiring a high degree of heat; as, the destructive distillation of soft coal or of wood. -- Dry distillation, the distillation of substances by themselves, or w…

The separation of a genus into its constituent species.

lius, that all definite compounds are binary in their nature, and consist of two distinct constituents, themselves simple or complex, and possessed of opposite chemical or electrical affinities.

One of the ultimate, undecomposable constituents of any kind of matter. Specifically: (Chem.) A substance which cannot be decomposed into different kinds of matter by any means at present employed; as, the elements of water are oxygen and hydrogen.

Having only one principle or constituent part; consisting of a single element; simple; uncompounded; as, an elementary substance.

om, always comprising a variety in the nationality of, or the forms of administration in, constituent and subordinate portions; as, the Austrian empire. Empire carries with it the idea of a vast and complicated government. C. J. Smith.

One of the higher hydrocarbons of the paraffin series, C11H24, found as a constituent of petroleum. [Written also hendecane.]

the inability of chemical science, at the time of its discovery, to separate some of its constituents.

The constituent elementary notions which constitute a complex notion, and must be enumerated to define it; sometimes called the nominal essence.