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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
corrode
verb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Acid can corrode most metals.
▪ Acid rain has corroded the statue.
▪ By the time they found the wreckage of the plane, it had already started to corrode.
▪ If the batteries leak, they can corrode the case of your flashlight.
▪ Over the years, rain, wind, and sun had corroded the statue, turning the bronze a bright green.
▪ Salt corrodes metal.
▪ The pipework was badly corroded in places.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Beyond the stadium were the corroding hulks of the Bronx.
▪ It's not been in the water long enough to corrode.
▪ It was in a brass frame, corroded from the steam of coffee and spilled Cokes.
▪ So the sewage goes septic, giving off hydrogen sulphide which corrodes the pipes and makes a nasty smell.
▪ The Hmong with whom they worked had radio equipment that was corroded, antique, unserviceable.
▪ The system would corrode and crumble.
▪ Theserevelations corrode public faith in democracy.
▪ We think she corroded for only a matter of weeks before being colonised.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Corrode

Corrode \Cor*rode"\ (k?r-r?d") v. t. [imp. & p. p. Corroded; p. pr. & vb. n. Corroding.] [L. corrodere, -rosum; cor + rodere to gnaw: cf. F. corroder. See Rodent.]

  1. To eat away by degrees; to wear away or diminish by gradually separating or destroying small particles of, as by action of a strong acid or a caustic alkali.

    Aqua fortis corroding copper . . . is wont to reduce it to a green-blue solution.
    --Boyle.

  2. To consume; to wear away; to prey upon; to impair.

Corrode

Corrode \Cor*rode"\, v. i. To have corrosive action; to be subject to corrosion.

Corroding lead, lead sufficiently pure to be used in making white lead by a process of corroding.

Syn: To canker; gnaw; rust; waste; wear away.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
corrode

c.1400, from Old French corroder (14c.) or directly from Latin corrodere "to gnaw to bits, wear away," from com-, intensive prefix (see com-), + rodere "to gnaw" (see rodent). Related: Corroded; corroding.

Wiktionary
corrode

vb. 1 (context transitive English) To eat away by degrees; to wear away or diminish by gradually separating or destroying small particles of, as by action of a strong acid or a caustic alkali. 2 (context transitive English) To consume; to wear away; to prey upon; to impair. 3 (context intransitive English) To have corrosive action; to be subject to corrosion.

WordNet
corrode
  1. v. cause to deteriorate due to the action of water, air, or an acid; "The acid corroded the metal"; "The steady dripping of water rusted the metal stopper in the sink" [syn: eat, rust]

  2. become destroyed by water, air, or an etching chemical such as an acid; "The metal corroded"; "The pipes rusted" [syn: rust]

Usage examples of "corrode".

Most of them featured only the Brazils, with Danny in front holding up a corroded metal blade.

Suddenly his corroded bunsen burner seemed to have lost its cachet, but he could think of no other course than to brazen the matter out and play for time.

I am what you call your genuine all-round carnie, born and bred, taught and trained, guaranteed not to rust, bust, corrode, or explode.

Marchioness, and at that age when the mind is particularly sensible to impressions of gaiety and delight, he had once visited this spot, and, though he had passed a long intervening period amidst the vexations and tumults of public affairs, which too frequently corrode the heart, and vitiate the taste, the shades of Languedoc and the grandeur of its distant scenery had never been remembered by him with indifference.

Even more interesting to them were the items they were able to dig out of the nonorganic trash pit: rapidly corroding broken screws, a cracked bubble matrix, the partly carbonized innards of a comm unit that had overloaded and burned out.

The hall was filled with rusting antique apparatus: a centrifuge, an operating table, a wrecked fluoroscope, autoclaves, cases of corroded surgical instruments.

Rain was driving almost horizontally against the window, tiny droplets reaching his face through cracks in the glass and corroded segments of the supporting lead.

Malenfant saw that where her long, flipperlike hand had wrapped around the bone, it had been corroded.

Screeching and thundering, three corroded cargo haulers ground to a halt and then hissed, coming to rest on the magnetic rail.

The one at Parish spacefield was long past its prime, sixty hectares of corroded hulls, acid-eaten scrap, cracked plastipaneling remnants, and wormeaten wood.

He certainly did know, if we could judge by his scarred arms and legs and by the live ulcers that corroded in the midst of the scars.

As the half-decomposed shells in the lower parts are associated with much common salt, together with some of the saline substances composing the upper saline layer, and as these shells are corroded and decayed in a remarkable manner, I strongly suspect that this double decomposition has here taken place.

It was a chaotic scene: a rusted and clanging gate, charred and corroded barrack houses, dirt, sand, flies amid piles of mangoes hawked by a small crowd of women, and lots of teenage boys armed with wads of cedis, the Ghanaian currency, which they were selling in exchange for CFA francs.

In theory, specialized submarine recovery vehicles would be able to salvage the freighter's cargo before seawater corroded the cylinders containing the plutonium, contaminating the local waters with radioactivity.

Slowly the spray diminished to little more than a sheen of moisture trickling from the corroded brass and sun-bleached canvas.