lac

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A resinous secretion of the lac insect deposited on trees and used in making shellac.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A Middle English form of lack.
2. n. A resinous incrustation deposited on the twigs of various trees in India and southern Asia by the lac-insect, Carteria lacca. The substance is formed by the mature female, from which it exudes, inclosing the eggs and keeping them attached to the branch. At the proper time the twigs are broken off by the native collectors, and exposed to the sun to kill the insect and to dry the lac. These twigs, with the attached resin, inclosed insects, and ova, constitute the stick-lac. Lac is a dark-red transparent resin, with a crystalline fracture, and bitter in taste. It yields only a part of its coloring matter to water, but borax solution exercises a special solvent power upon it. It is still much used in the East for dyeing woolen goods and leather, producing scarlet shades, not so brilliant as cochiueal, but somewhat faster. Seed-lac is obtained from stick-lac by removing the resinous concretions from the twigs and triturating with water. The greater part of the coloring matter is dissolved, and the granular portion which remains after drying is the seed-lac. Shelllac or shellac is obtained by melting the seed-lac in cotton-cloth bags, straining, and allowing it to drop on to sticks or leaves. In this way the resin spreads into thin plates, in which state it is found in commerce. It is used in the manufacture of spirit-varnishes and sealing-wax, and as a stiffening for hats. Button-lac differs from shellac only in form. In its melted state it is dropped into disk forms three inches in diameter and one sixth of an inch thick. Lac-dye is imported from India, and is probably prepared by extracting the coloring matter from stick-lac with a weak alkali to which alumina has been added. It is used like cochineal for dyeing scarlet on woolens, but has only half as much tinctorial strength. Lac-lake is obtained by treating stick-lac with caustic soda and alum. It has a limited use as an artists' color, producing results similar to cochineal carmines, though less brilliant. The extraction of the color from the resin leaves the shellac of commerce. The general term lac is extended to the similar secretion of any lac-insect.
3. n. The sum of 100,000, usually of rupees. The usual pointing for sums of Indian money rising above a lac is with a comma after the number of lacs: thus, Rs. 30,52,000 (i. e. thirty lacs and fifty-two thousand) or Rs. 49,98,810, instead of the equivalent 3,052,000 and 4,998,810 rupees.

Wiktionary

1. n. A resinous substance produced mainly on the banyan tree by the female of Coccus lacca, a scale-shaped insect.
2. n. One hundred thousand (commonly used in Pakistan and India).

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. East Indies One hundred thousand; also, a vaguely great number.
2. n. A resinous substance produced mainly on the banyan tree, but to some extent on other trees, by the Laccifer lacca (formerly Coccus lacca), a scale-shaped insect, the female of which fixes herself on the bark, and exudes from the margin of her body this resinous substance.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. resinlike substance secreted by certain lac insects; used in e.g. varnishes and sealing wax