reflux

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹiː.flʌks/

reflux (countable and uncountable, plural refluxes)

1. The backwards flow of any fluid.
   • 1719- Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

     […] after a little way out to sea, there was a current and wind, always one way in the morning, the other in the afternoon. This I understood to be no more than the sets of the tide, as going out or coming in; but I afterwards understood it was occasioned by the great draft and reflux of the mighty river Orinoco […]

2. (chemistry) A technique, using a reflux condenser, allowing one to boil the contents of a vessel over an extended period.
3. (pathology) The leaking of stomach acid up into the oesophagus.

reflux (third-person singular simple present refluxes, present participle refluxing, simple past and past participle refluxed)

1. To flow back or return.

   the refluxing tide

2. To boil a liquid in a vessel having a reflux condenser

• IPA^(key): /ʁə.fly/

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reflux m (uncountable)

1. ebb, ebb tide
2. vicissitude
3. reflux