Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SO-LU'TION, n. [Fr.; It. soluzione; Sp. solucion; from L. solutio, from solvo, to loosen, melt, dissolve. See Solve.]

1. The act of separating the parts of any body; disruption; breach. In all bodies there is an appetite of union and evitation of solution of continuity. – Bacon.
2. A feeble combination, in which, with a mere mechanical change of properties, and without regard to definite proportions, one or more solids are equally diffused through some liquid. This mode of combination is so weak, that the liquid may be evaporated from the solid or solids, leaving them unchanged, except in texture or aggregation. There is usually, and probably always, a limit to the quantity of the solid or solids, which can be dissolved by a given liquid, and this is called saturation. The liquid in which the solution is effected, is called the solvent or menstruum. Note. This word is not used in chimistry or mineralogy for the melting of bodies by the heat of fire. The term solution is applied to a very extensive class of phenomena. When a solid disappears in a liquid, if the compound exhibits perfect transparency, we have an example solution. The word is applied both to the act of combination and to the result of the process. Thus common salt disappears in water, that is, its solution takes place and the liquid obtained is called a solution of salt in water. Solution is the result of attraction or affinity between the fluid and the solid. This affinity continues to operate to certain point, where it is overbalanced by the cohesion of the solid; it then ceases, the fluid is said to be saturated the point where the operation ceases is called saturation and the fluid is called a saturated solution. – Brande. Solution is a true chimical union. Mixture is a mere mechanical union of bodies.
3. Resolution; explanation; the act of explaining or removing difficulty or doubt; as, the solution of a difficult question in morality; the solution of a doubt in casuistry.
4. Release; deliverance; discharge. – Barrow.
5. In algebra and geometry, the answering of a question, the resolving of a problem proposed. Solution of continuity, the separation of connection or connected substances or parts; applied, in surgery, to a fracture, laceration, &c.