paraffin

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“
The most serviceable kind of paraffin is the hardest obtainable, melting at a temperature of not less than 52° C.

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Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. noun A waxy white or colorless solid hydrocarbon mixture used to make candles, wax paper, lubricants, and sealing materials. Also called paraffin wax.
  2. noun Chemistry A member of the alkane series.
  3. noun Chiefly British Kerosene.
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Examples (50)

  • Behind those was paraffin, and lastly a whiff of gin. —  The Flemish Shop - Maigret 14 - Georges Simenon
  • Amid July air hot and thick as liquid paraffin, the lean man leaps over a pile of horse dung. —  The Twelfth Card
  • Doc had explained that Jan Hile had effected this by injecting paraffin, and that the stuff had best be removed later with a slight surgical operation Tom Idle waited without much patience for their destination Chapter XVI. —  071 - Mad Mesa
  • Then the police take paraffin and put it on the hand while the paraffin is warm. —  109 - The Too-Wise Owl
  • I was nearly thrown by a synthetic turquoise; the sod had treated it with paraffin, as if it were a natural stone, so I had a bad minute with the microscope. —  The Great California Game—Lovejoy—Jonathan Gash
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Etymologies (1)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. German : Latin parum, little, not very; see pau-1 in Indo-European roots + Latin affīnis, associated with (from its lack of affinity with other materials); see affined.
 

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/ˈpærəfɪn/
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