latex

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The colorless or milky sap of certain plants, such as the poinsettia or milkweed, that coagulates on exposure to air.
2. n. An emulsion of rubber or plastic globules in water, used in paints, adhesives, and various synthetic rubber products.
3. n. Latex paint.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A milk-like liquid occurring in many plants in special vessels (called laticiferous, or sometimes cinenchymatous), and exuding when the plant is wounded. It may be white, like that of the milkweeds and many species of Euphorbia; or yellow, as in the prickly poppy. Argemone; or orange, as in celandine, Chelidonium. It consists of a watery fluid holding in solution small quantities of sugar, gum, alkaloid and acid matters, etc., and, suspended in this, numerous minute granules (giving the milky appearance) which coagulate when exposed to the air. It has sometimes an economic importance, as in the case of opium (the dried latex of the poppy) and of india-rubber.

Wiktionary

1. n. The milky sap of several trees that coagulates on exposure to air; used to make rubber.
2. n. An emulsion of rubber in water, used in adhesives and the like.
3. n. uncountable Natural latex rubber, especially non-vulcanized rubber, such as is used in making latex gloves, latex condoms, and latex clothing.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Bot.) A milky or colored juice in certain plants in cavities (called latex cells or latex tubes). It contains the peculiar principles of the plants, whether aromatic, bitter, or acid, and in many instances yields caoutchouc upon coagulation. The lattex of the India rubber plant produces the rubber of commerce on coagulation.
2. n. (Chem.) Any aqueous emulsion of finely divided rubber or plastic particles, especially such an emulsion used as a base for paint.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a water-base paint that has a latex binder
2. n. a milky exudate from certain plants that coagulates on exposure to air