flocculate

From Latin flocculus, diminutive of floccus (“lock, tuft”).

flocculate (third-person singular simple present flocculates, present participle flocculating, simple past and past participle flocculated)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To collect together in a loose aggregation like flocks (tufts) of wool.
   • I. P. Roberts

     When applied to clay soils it [lime] binds the small particles together, or flocculates them.

   • Frank Humphreys Storer Agriculture in Some of Its Relations with Chemistry 1897

     For example when the Mississippi water flows into the saline water of the Gulf of Mexico, much of the matter that was held suspended in the river-water is flocculated at once, so that it can subside. Such action as this is one prime cause of the formation of deltas, for the flocculation of fine mud by salt is common to all rivers that reach the sea.

flocculate (not comparable)

1. Having flock form or forms.

   Synonym: floccular

flocculate (plural flocculates)

1. A mass that has suffered flocculation.

flocculate

1. inflection of flocculare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

flocculate f pl

1. feminine plural of flocculato