Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A black, viscous natural bitumen.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A bituminous substance midway in consistency between asphaltum and petroleum. From its tarry appearance, it is sometimes called
mineral tar ; it is the brea of the Mexican Spanish. By the Romans the word maltha was used as the name of various cements, stuccos, and other preparations of a similar kind employed for repairing cisterns, roofs, etc., and of some of these what is now known as maltha, or some other form of bitumen, in all probability constituted a part Asphaltum and maltha were also used from the earliest times (as stated in Genesis with regard to the building of the Tower of Babel) for the same purpose for which our common mortar is employed, namely to bind together stones and bricks. - n. Haeckel's term for the gelatinous ground-substance or mesoglcea and contained cells of various kinds, which forms the skeletogenous layer in sponges.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A variety of bitumen, viscid and tenacious, like pitch, unctuous to the touch, and exhaling a bituminous odor.
- n. Mortar.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a thick black tar intermediate between petroleum and asphalt
Etymologies
- Middle English malthe, from Latin maltha, from Greek, a mixture of wax and pitch; see mel-1 in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“The Greek language has contributed "maltha," to melt; the German "schmeltz," the old”
“I felt a sudden flush and the child in my womb moved, stirred by the earth, the blood-red clay, Southern dirt laden with maltha, gilsonite and iron, feeding the unspeakable hunger.”
“Thus they form a heterogeneous assemblage of liquid hydrocarbons, of which naphtha and maltha may be said to form the extremes, and which have little in common, except their undefinable name.”
“Among different bituminous substances, the names _naphtha_ and _petrolium_ have been given to those which are fluid, _maltha_, to that which has the consistence of pitch, and _asphaltum_ to that which is solid.”
“Among different bituminous substances, the names _naphtha_ and _petroleum_ have been given to those which are fluid; _maltha_, to that which has the consistence of pitch; and _asphaltum_, to that which is solid.”
A Treatise on Domestic Economy For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘maltha’.
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Not edible
Things that sound edible but are not (usually). See Liberty's To Eat, or Not to Eat? for more diet food.
cinnabar, dulcimer, belfries, potto, maltha, grapple, loam, rake, tort, pomade, buffalo chip, wedgie and 165 more...
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