sorb

plural sorbs

1. The service tree, Sorbus domestica.
2. Any of various related trees, including the wild service tree, S. torminalis, and the rowan, S. aucuparia.
3. The fruit of any of these trees, especially of the service tree.

present singular third person sorbs · participle present sorbing · participle past sorbed · past sorbed

1. chemistryTo absorb or adsorb.

   The exchange of pesticide compounds between aqueous solution and the sorbed phase in soils is not instantaneous.

   2005, J. E. Barbash, “The Geochemistry of Pesticides”, in Barbara Sherwood Lollar, editor, Treatise on Geochemistry 9: Environmental Geochemistry, Second Edition, page 548

   3 more examples

   1971, E. K. Duursma, M. G. Gross, Chapter Six: Marine Sediments and Radioactivity, National Research Council (U.S.) Committee on Oceanography Panel on Radioactivity in the Marine Environment, Radioactivity in the marine environment, page 148, In sediments with large cation exchange capacities, as calculated from the mineral composition (Duursma and Eisma, unpublished), the radionuclides were somewhat more strongly sorbed (Figure 2).

   The quantity sorbed is often found to be well represented by the combination of a compartment exhibiting linear, reversible sorption and a compartment that exhibits nonlinear and thermodynamic irreversib[l]e sorption.

   2007, Danny D. Reible, “Chapter 21: Contaminant Processes in Sediments”, in Marcelo H. García, editor, Sedimentation Engineering: Processes, Management, Modeling, and Practice, page 966

   As contaminated water or air flows through GAC, contaminants sorb (stick) to the GAC surface and are removed. […] It also sorbs low levels of some types of metals. […] The “spent” GAC may be replaced with fresh GAC or regenerated to remove the sorbed contaminants.

   2021, “Community Guide to Granular Activated Carbon Treatment”, in United States Environmental Protection Agency, page 1, columns 1, 2

plural Sorbs

1. A member of a Slavic people living in Lusatia in eastern Germany.