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Glite Dictionary
🎭 To redirect feelings 🌟 To refine or elevate 💨 To turn to vapor ✨ Refined or pure 🧪 A purified solid
to sublimate

to sublimate

5 8.6
To change strong, unwanted feelings into useful or creative actions
  • verb
  • /ˈsʌblɪˌmeɪt/
  • Specialized
: sublimar
  • I was sublimating my own creative needs and forcing them on our daughter.

And you know, you can, you can like sublimate whatever emotions you have around that and just grind.

Examples

  • If Maura was typical of someone newly sober, her desire for alcohol had been sublimated, at least in part, by a craving for sweets.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • The protagonist's longing was sublimated for the sake of his own inner life, not for the sake of an Other.

    Academic text (2000)

  • We have to somehow sublimate those male hormones, or at least get them under control.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • "War" as just another dodge to sublimate desires, roles, relations.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Certainly, this statement is true; patriarchal social norms do encourage women to sublimate their own needs to attend to the needs of others.

    Academic text (2014)

  • After feeling overwhelmed by his emotions, he decided to sublimate his feelings by channeling them into painting.

  • Therapists often encourage their clients to sublimate their anger through sports or creative hobbies.

  • Instead of lashing out, she learned to sublimate her frustration into writing powerful poetry.

Compounds

corrosive sublimate
  • Archaic
9.9

A white poisonous chemical once used to kill germs and protect wood

How Constructive

to transform
523 3.4
to sublimate
  • Specialized
5 8.6
to channel
130 4.4
to express
∞ 2.3
to vent
61 4.1
to act out
32 5.5

Surface Forms

sublimate infinitive
sublimated past
sublimated past participle
sublimating present participle
sublimates third person singular

Etymology

Sublimate comes from the Latin sublimare, 'to lift up', like the word sublime which means noble or high. In psychology it means to 'raise' a strong or bad feeling into something useful or creative, so you can remember it as turning low urges into higher actions.