mordancy


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Related to mordancy: effortlessly, splendidly

mor·dant

 (môr′dnt)
adj.
1.
a. Bitingly sarcastic: mordant satire.
b. Incisive and trenchant: an inquisitor's mordant questioning.
2. Bitingly painful.
3. Serving to fix colors in dyeing.
n.
1. A reagent, such as tannic acid, that fixes dyes to cells, tissues, or textiles or other materials.
2. A corrosive substance, such as an acid, used in etching.
tr.v. mor·dant·ed, mor·dant·ing, mor·dants
To treat with a mordant.
[French, from Old French, present participle of mordre, to bite, from Vulgar Latin *mordere, from Latin mordēre; see mer- in Indo-European roots.]
mor′dan·cy n.
mor′dant·ly adv.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

mordancy, mordacity

the condition or quality of being biting or caustic, as humor, speech, etc. See also speech. — mordant, adj.
See also: Humor
the property of acting as a fixative in dyeing. — mordant, n. , adj.
See also: Processes
the property of acting as a flxative in dyeing. — mordant, n., adj.
See also: Color
the quality or state of being sarcastic or caustic. — mordant, adj.
See also: Attitudes
the quality or state of being sarcastic or caustic. — mordant, adj.
See also: Moods
-Ologies & -Isms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

mordancy

noun
Irony or bitterness, as of tone:
acerbity, acidity, acridity, causticity, corrosiveness, mordacity, sarcasm, trenchancy.
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive ?
The reader will differentiate both the self-self-confidence as well as the mordancy felt by Claudia and Margot too, as they endeavor to find some answers for complications facing them.
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In his conclusion he makes the obligatory genuflection to Orwell's essay Politics and The English Language, and his book covers some of the same ground as Howard Becker's book Writing for Social Scientists (1986), though it's less of a cheery how-to guide for students and more a how-not-to guide for tenured dons, with Becker's aw-shucks folksiness replaced by Billig's deadpan mordancy.
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Similarly, we can take comfort in mordancy and misanthropy.
The Poetry of Robert Frost: The Collected Poems

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