mastic

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The mastic tree.
2. n. The aromatic resin of the mastic tree, used especially in varnishes, lacquers, adhesives, and condiments and as an astringent.
3. n. A pastelike cement used in highway construction, especially one made with powdered lime or brick and tar.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A resinous substance obtained from the common mastic-tree, Pistacia Lentiscus, a small tree about 12 feet high, native in the countries around the Mediterranean. The commercial article is derived principally from the Levant, and especially from the island of Chios. The greater part is obtained from artificial incisions in the bark of the tree. It comes in yellow, brittle, transparent, rounded tears, which soften between the teeth with bitterish taste and aromatic smell. About 90 per cent, of mastic is dissolved in alcohol, the residue constituting the substance masticin. Its solution in turpentine constitutes a varnish much used in painting in oil. In the East mastic is chewed by the women.
2. n. A similar resin yielded by some other plant. Algerian or Barbary mastic is afforded by Pistacia Terebinthus (P. Atlantica), a tree of the same region as P. Lentiscus. In India a mastic is obtained from P. Khinjube and P. Cabulica. At the Cape of Good Hope a shrubby composite plant, Euryops speciosissimus, called resin-bush, yields a gum which serves as mastic. The Peruvian mastic-tree is Schinus molle; the West Indian is Bursera gummifera, a lofty tree from all parts of which a resinous gum exudes.
3. n. A mastic-tree.
4. n. A distilled liquor, most commonly obtained from grapes or grape-skins after the wine is pressed, flavored with the gum mastic and sometimes with anise or fennel, becoming opaline when mixed with water, much drunk in Turkey, Greece, and the islands. The best is made in Chios.—5. A kind of mortar or cement used for plastering walls. It is composed of finely ground oölitic limestone mixed with sand and litharge, and is used with a considerable portion of linseed-oil: it sets hard in a few days, and is much used in works where great expedition is required.
5. Adhesive, as or with gum or mastic.

Wiktionary

1. n. An evergreen shrub or small tree, Pistacia lentiscus, native to the Mediterranean.
2. n. A hard, brittle, aromatic and transparent resin produced by this tree and used to make varnishes and chewing gum, and as a flavouring.
3. n. A flexible, waterproof cement used as an adhesive, sealant or filler.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Bot.) A low shrubby tree of the genus Pistacia (Pistacia Lentiscus), growing upon the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean, and producing a valuable resin; -- called also, mastic tree.
2. n. A resin exuding from the mastic tree, and obtained by incision. The best is in yellowish white, semitransparent tears, of a faint smell, and is used as an astringent and an aromatic, also as an ingredient in varnishes.
3. n. A kind of cement composed of burnt clay, litharge, and linseed oil, used for plastering walls, etc.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an aromatic exudate from the mastic tree; used chiefly in varnishes
2. n. an evergreen shrub of the Mediterranean region that is cultivated for its resin
3. n. a pasty cement used as an adhesive or filler