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Glite Dictionary
to suffuse

to suffuse

8 7.6
To spread slowly through something, often as light, color, or a feeling
  • verb
  • /səˈfjuːz/
translation icon : sufundir
  • The morning sun suffused the room with a warm golden light.
  • the air suffused
  • suffused with love
  • suffused his writing

But the question that suffuses the Merlin cycle is why?

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Examples

  • The secretary watches him go, tall, oddly misshapen, and suddenly feels suffused with maternal fondness.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Your entire system appears to be suffused with it.

    Cyborg 2 (1993)

  • And can you let that feeling suffuse through you now, that sense of calm?

  • Ideas of romantic love suffuse our lives and guide our emotional experiences and behaviors.

    Academic text (2013)

  • At a practical level, death suffuses the professional life of a modern Supreme Court justice.

    Academic text (1994)

  • And The Blue Hotel, these are stories that are suffused with a kind of darkness.

  • The history of fruit growing in the Northwest has been suffused with myth ever since.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • For a moment, everything is suffused with the soft glow of a natural haze.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • God creates the world, suffuses its history, and dwells within us, redeeming the world from within.

    Academic text (2007)

  • A mile below our feet is an ancient ocean floor suffused with heavy metals, radioactivity and methane.

    Harvard University

Synonyms

to saturate
vsto suffuse
55 5.2

Make something so full of liquid or color that it can take no more

spreads gradually without necessarily filling everything to capacity
to diffuse
vsto suffuse
40 5.5

To spread out and reach many people or places

spreads slowly through or over rather than merely distributing widely
to permeate
vsto suffuse
24 6.0

To spread through something and reach every part

spreads gradually without necessarily reaching every part completely
to fill the air
vsto suffuse
18 3.7

A strong sound, smell, or feeling that people notice around them

spreads into a thing rather than mostly filling the surrounding atmosphere
to bathe
vsto suffuse
  • Literature
12 6.8

To fill something with light or strong feeling

spreads into or over rather than fully surrounding it
to imbue
vsto suffuse
1 7.7

To give a material or object a deep color

spreads gently rather than dyeing deeply into substance
to perfuse
vsto suffuse
9.3

Cause light, color or liquid to spread through something

spreads gradually rather than being forced through by action
to circumfuse
vsto suffuse
9.9

To spread a substance all around something, like light or scent

spreads through or over rather than only encircling from outside

Antonyms

to concentrate
130 3.6

To bring people or things together in one place

to localize
  • US
23 4.8

To keep something within one area so it does not spread

How Much

to saturate
55 5.2
to pervade
22 6.7
to suffuse
8 7.6
to tinge
1 4.8

Surface Forms

suffuse infinitive
suffused past
suffused past participle
suffusing present participle
suffuses third person singular

Morphology

suffuse = fuse (semi-transparent) = suf + fuse

The prefix 'suf-' is a variation of 'sub-' meaning 'under' or 'from below', which may not be immediately clear to all learners.

Etymology

Suffuse comes from Latin parts sub- ('under') and fundere ('to pour'), and you can see the same root in the word fuse, which has the idea of melting or pouring. So, to suffuse something is like having color, light, or a feeling slowly 'poured' through or over it, filling it gently.