antimony

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A metallic element having four allotropic forms, the most common of which is a hard, extremely brittle, lustrous, silver-white, crystalline material. It is used in a wide variety of alloys, especially with lead in battery plates, and in the manufacture of flame-proofing compounds, paint, semiconductor devices, and ceramic products. Atomic number 51; atomic weight 121.76; melting point 630.5°C; boiling point 1,380°C; specific gravity 6.691; valence 3, 5. See Table at element.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Chemical symbol, Sb (Latin stibium); atomic weight, 120. A metal of a white color and bright luster which does not readily tarnish, having a specific gravity of 6.7, crystallizing in the rhombohedral system, and in the mass ordinarily showing a crystalline structure and highly perfect cleavage. It conducts both heat and electricity with some readiness, but less perfectly than the true metals, and differs from them also in being brittle like arsenic. It melts at 430° C. (806° F.), and volatilizes slowly at a red heat; when melted in the air it oxidizes readily, forming antimony trioxid, Sb₂O₃. Antimony occurs uncombined in nature to a limited extent, usually in granular or foliated masses, often with a botryoidal or reniform surface. Many compounds of antimony are found in nature, the most important of them being the sulphid, Sb₂S₃, called gray antimony, antimony-glance, or stibnite. Dyscrasite is a compound of antimony and silver. There are also a number of minerals containing antimony, sulphur, and lead (like jamesonite), or antimony, sulphur, and silver (like pyrargyrite or ruby silver), or antimony, sulphur, and copper (like tetrahedrite). The oxisulphid kermesite or red antimony and the oxids cervantite and stibiconite (antimony ocher) are also important minerals. Antimony has few uses in the arts; it enters, however, into a number of very valuable alloys, as type-metal, pewter, Britannia metal, and Babbitt metal, and is used in medicine. Tartar emetic is the tartrate of antimony and potassium. James's powder is a mixture of oxid of antimony and phosphate of lime.

Wiktionary

1. n. A chemical element (symbol Sb) with an atomic number of 51. The symbol is derived from Latin stibium.
2. n. The alloy stibnite

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Chem.) An elementary substance, resembling a metal in its appearance and physical properties, but in its chemical relations belonging to the class of nonmetallic substances. Atomic weight, 120. Symbol, Sb.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a metallic element having four allotropic forms; used in a wide variety of alloys; found in stibnite