[ad. L. liquiditāt-em, f. liquidus LIQUID a.: see -ITY. Cf. F. liquidité.] The quality or condition of being liquid.
1620. Venner, Via Recta, viii. 183. They doe by reason of their liquiditie, very fitly prepare the way for other meats.
1653. H. More, Conject. Cabbal. (1713), 83. Air and Water, for their thinness and liquidity, are very like one another.
1758. Borlase, Nat. Hist. Cornwall, 82. Passing from a state of liquidity into a state of solidity.
1794. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), I. 398. Lavas owe their liquidity to melted bitumen and sulphur.
181321. Bentham, Ontology, Wks. 1843, VIII. 200. Of such of them as are in a state of fluidity, liquidity and gaseosity included.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. iii. 29. Heavy rain fell, but it came from a region high above that of liquidity.
1871. Roscoe, Elem. Chem., 40. This amount of heat which is necessary to keep the water in the liquid form is termed the heat of liquidity.
1881. G. Macdonald, Mary Marston, I. ii. 33. Eyes with more than a touch of hardness in the midst of their liquidity.
† b. Rarefied condition, subtlety. Obs.
1665. Glanvill, Scepsis Sci., vi. 28. The spirits, for their liquidity, are more uncapable than the fluid Medium, which is the conveyer of Sounds, to persevere in the continued repetition of vocal Ayres.
c. Of sound: Clearness or purity of tone.
1817. Keats, Sleep & Poetry, 371. The wild Thrilling liquidity of dewy piping.
1819. P. Morris, in Blackw. Mag., VI. 309. The mind wandering abroad rejoices in joining itself with the soothing liquidity of rivers.
1821. Examiner, 155/2. Sweet and indefinable liquidity of tone.