Answer:
water pulling a compound apart and then surrounding the broken pieces/ions (this is what dissolving is)
Step-by-step explanation:
As we know, water is a polar solvent. What this means is that water can effectively interact with ions in an ionic substance owing to its large dipole moment.
Now, when an ionic substance is dissolved in water, the positive end in water pulls hard on the negative ion of the ionic substance while the negative end in water pulls hard on the positive ion of the ionic substance.
The ionic substance is eventually pulled apart and surrounded by water molecules. This is how an ionic substance is dissolved in water.