quicksilver.

1. The metallic element mercury, especially as a silvery liquid.

2. Rapidly changing or shifting, difficult to pin down.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• drop of quicksilver
• liquid quicksilver

On the page

The old text called the metal quicksilver.

A sealed display showed a drop of quicksilver.

The historian traced quicksilver’s role in alchemy.

Usage notes

Primary category: fantasy. Forms: Mass noun. Adjective normally more/most quicksilver if gradable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.