I.a dissolving, destroying, breaking up, dissolution (good prose).
I. Lit.: “navigii,” Tac. A. 14, 5: “naturae (mors),” Cic. Leg. 1, 11; id. Fin. 5, 11, 31; cf. id. ib. 2, 31: “stomachi,” i. e. looseness, Plin. 20, 22, 91, § 248.—
II. Trop.
A. In gen., an abolishing, a destruction: “legum omnium,” Cic. Phil. 1, 9: “imperii,” Tac. A. 13, 50.—Absol., ruin, Vulg. Isa. 8, 22.
B. In partic.
2. (Acc. to dissolutus, A.) As rhet. t. t., want of connection, interruption: “constructio verborum tum conjunctionibus copuletur, tum dissolutionibus relaxetur,” Cic. Part. 6, 21; cf. Quint. 9, 3, 50; Auct. Her. 4, 30.—
3. (Acc. to dissolutus, B.) Of character, looseness, i. e. weakness, effeminacy, frivolity; dissoluteness: “si humanitas appellanda est in acerbissima injuria (sc. vindicanda) remissio animi ac dissolutio,” Cic. Fam. 5, 2, 9; so, “judiciorum,” Cic. Verr. 2, 4, 59 fin.; Treb. Pol. XXX. Tyr. 23: “dissolutio et languor,” Sen. Ep. 3 fin.; cf. “animorum,” id. Cons. Sap. 4.