liquefy
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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liquefies,
present (3rd person singular)
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liquefied,
past participle, past
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liquefying
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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liquefactionnoun
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liquefiernoun
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reliquefyverb
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liquefactiveadjective
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liquefiableadjective
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nonliquefiableadjective
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nonliquefyingadjective
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unliquefiableadjective
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unliquefiedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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liquefysimple
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liquefiessimple
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have liquefiedperfect
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has liquefiedperfect
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am liquefyingprogressive
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are liquefyingprogressive
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is liquefyingprogressive
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have been liquefyingperfect progressive
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has been liquefyingperfect progressive
Past
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liquefiedsimple
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had liquefiedperfect
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was liquefyingprogressive
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were liquefyingprogressive
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had been liquefyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of liquefy
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English lyquefyen, from Old French liquefier, translation of Latin liquefacere “to melt” ( see liquefacient); see -fy
Explanation
When you turn a solid into a liquid, like when you set an ice cube in the sunshine and watch it melt into a puddle of water, you liquefy it. You can liquefy a solid by heating it until it melts, and you can also say the substance itself liquefies. A jar of coconut oil that's hard and solid in the refrigerator will liquefy if you leave it on the counter on a warm summer day. The Latin root of liquefy is liquefacere, "make liquid," from liquere, "be fluid," and facere, "to make."
Vocabulary lists containing liquefy
Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus
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The Hot Zone
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"Modern Automotive Technology," Vocabulary from Section 12
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The Strait of Hormuz remains closed to most tankers, which has clogged LNG flows, and Iran’s missiles have crippled Qatar’s facilities that liquefy and ship natural gas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 7, 2026
TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil's projects require onshore facilities to liquefy the gas so it can be transported by sea.
From Barron's ● Jan. 29, 2026
Foundries, which liquefy and cast metals, can release hexavalent chromium during melting, welding and grinding.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2025
But the company uses the heat generated by the electricity itself, rather than acid, to liquefy the ore.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 30, 2024
The dusk shimmered as the air itself seemed to liquefy from the heat.
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
Who’s washing it, chopping it, remembering it exists in the crisper drawer before it liquefies?
From Salon ● Feb. 18, 2026
The building’s walls and ceilings are constructed with a vegetable-based material that liquefies on hot afternoons to absorb heat and then solidifies at night.
From Washington Times ● Jan. 29, 2023
As the gas liquefies, it shrinks, and becomes six hundred times smaller, making it much easier to transport.
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2022
The line stops at 111 K because methane liquefies at this temperature; when extrapolated, it intersects the graph’s origin, representing a temperature of absolute zero.
From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019
When solid ice liquefies, heat is absorbed from surrounding materials.
From School and Home Cooking by Carlotta Cherryholmes Greer
But on Sunday, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the energy minister of Qatar, which before the war exported its copious amounts of liquefied natural gas via Hormuz, pushed back on the idea.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
Under Putin, Russia has tied its future to the Arctic and the region’s natural resources, including liquefied natural gas.
From Salon ● Sep. 16, 2026
On Monday, French energy giant TotalEnergies signed a memorandum of understanding with Iraq on liquefied natural gas supplies and agreed to discuss further energy projects.
From Barron's ● Sep. 14, 2026
But, if Europe has miscalculated and needs to turn to the spot market for more supplies later this year, U.S. exporters of liquefied natural gas will profit from higher prices.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
I stared at the problem until my liquefied eyeballs were about to drip out of their sockets and roll down my cheeks.
From "Ungifted" by Gordon Korman
As a former undertaker, Morton-Hayward knew the brain is perhaps the softest of the body’s soft tissues: It tends to decay quickly after death, liquefying and leaving only the skull behind.
From Science Magazine ● Mar. 19, 2024
People had been liquefying excess Gruyére in a bath of oxidized wine and mopping it up with day-old bread in the Alps for centuries, but the practice had never jumped the pond.
From Salon ● Feb. 19, 2023
Through the process of capillary action, contaminated water and liquefying waste, like that deposited in latrines, could travel to the sources of public drinking water.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022
Theoretically, transporting gas by pipelines would be easier than liquefying natural gas for export before converting it back into gas at its destination.
From New York Times ● Sep. 27, 2022
The total weight came to around fifty pounds of Biohazard Level 4 liquefying primate.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
