cellulose

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A complex carbohydrate, (C₆H₁₀O₅)_n, that is composed of glucose units, forms the main constituent of the cell wall in most plants, and is important in the manufacture of numerous products, such as paper, textiles, pharmaceuticals, and explosives.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Containing cells.
2. n. In botany, the essential constituent of the primary wall-membrane of all cells, a secretion from the contained protoplasm, isomerous with starch in its composition, and allied to starch, sugar, and inulin. It rarely or never exists in a simple condition unmixed with coloring or mineral matters, etc.; and with age it becomes largely transformed into lignin, suberin, or mucilage. Cotton and the bleached fiber of flax and hemp are nearly pure cellulose, and in some filter-paper it is almost chemically pure. Cellulose is remarkable for its insolubility, being dissolved without change only by an ammoniacal solution of oxid of copper, from which it may be again precipitated. Under the action of concentrated or boiling acids, or of caustic alkalis, many different products are obtained, according to the method of treatment. It is changed to glucose by long boiling with dilute sulphuric or hydrochloric acid; a substance resembling parchment is obtained by treating unsized paper with cold sulphuric acid; strong nitric acid, or a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acids, converts forms of cellulose into guncotton, etc. In its unchanged condition it is not colored by iodine except usually with a faint yellowish tint, which becomes a bright blue on the addition of strong sulphuric acid. Cellulose is also said to exist in the tunics of Ascidia and in other invertebrates.
3. Formed of cellulose.
4. n. A light material used as a packing in coffer-dam compartments of warships in the vicinity of the water-line. In the United States navy, cellulose from the husk of the cocoanut and that from the pith of cornstalks have been used for this purpose. See coffer-dam, 3.

Wiktionary

1. n. A complex carbohydrate that forms the main constituent of the cell wall in most plants and is important in the manufacture of numerous products, such as paper, textiles, pharmaceuticals, and explosives.
2. n. organic chemistry A polysaccharide containing many glucose units in parallel chains.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Consisting of, or containing, cells.
2. n. (Chem.) The substance which constitutes the essential part of the solid framework of plants, of ordinary wood, cotton, linen, paper, etc. It is also found to a slight extent in certain animals, as the tunicates. It is a carbohydrate, (C6H10O5)n, isomeric with starch, and is convertible into starches and sugars by the action of heat and acids. When pure, it is a white amorphous mass. See starch, granulose, lignin.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a polysaccharide that is the chief constituent of all plant tissues and fibers