Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various fusible alloys, usually tin and lead, used to join metallic parts.
- n. Something that joins or cements.
- v. To unite or repair (parts, for example) with solder.
- v. To join or unite: The agreement soldered the factions into an alliance.
- v. To unite or repair something with solder.
- v. To be joined or united.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A fusible alloy used for joining or binding together metal surfaces or joints, as the edges of tin cans, jewelry, and kitchen utensils. Being melted on each surface, the solder, partly hy chemical attraction and partly by cohesive force, binds them together. After cleaning the edges to be joined, the workman applies a solution of zinc in hydrochloric acid and also powdered rosin to the cleaned surfaces; then he touches the heated soldering-iron to the rosin, and holding the solder-bar and iron over the parts to be joined melts off little drops of solder at intervals along the margins, and runs all together with the hot iron. There are many of these alloys, as soft solder used for tinware, hard solder for brass and iron, gold solder, silver solder, spelter solder, plumbers' solder, etc. Every kind is used at its own melting-point, which must always be lower than that of the metals to be united, soft solders being the most fusible.
- n. Hence Figuratively, that which unites in any way.
- n. Gross fiattery or fulsome praise, particularly when used for selfish aims.
- To unite by a metallic cement; join by a metallic substance in a state of fusion, which hardens in cooling, and renders the joint solid.
- Figuratively, to close up or unite firmly by any means.
Wiktionary
- n. Any of various alloys, often of tin and lead, that are used to join small pieces of metal together
- v. To join with (or as if with) solder
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A metal or metallic alloy used when melted for uniting adjacent metallic edges or surfaces; a metallic cement. anything which unites or cements.
- v. To unite (metallic surfaces or edges) by the intervention of a more fusible metal or metallic alloy applied when melted; to join by means of metallic cement.
- v. To mend; to patch up.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an alloy (usually of lead and tin) used when melted to join two metal surfaces
- v. join or fuse with solder
Etymologies
- Middle English solderen, from Old French solder (Modern French souder) from Latin solido, solidare ("to make solid"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English soudur, from Old French soudure, soldure, from souder, soulder, to solder, from Latin solidāre, to make solid, from solidus, solid; see solid. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The solder is too precise to be done by hand -- that's because it's from India.”
Boing Boing: September 18, 2005 - September 24, 2005 Archives
“The connectors are lead-free and RoHS-compatible, with signal terminations featuring a nickel barrier for long-term solder-joint reliability.”
“If the gulf between us had been filled with Birmingham 'solder' - what you say would have been highly sensible; but I believe, from my heart, that it is drawn together and closed by the same process that first drew us together.”
Selections from the Letters of Geraldine Endsor Jewsbury to Jane Welsh Carlyle
“Lt.Col. John Clearwater says the solder is a male but would not release his name or whether he's related to Specialist Tuoma.”
“By doing this, one becomes familiar with the feeling of hot solder, which is the secret of successful wiping.”
“The importance of good solder, that is, solder correctly mixed and thoroughly cleaned, should not be overlooked.”
“Too much solder on the seam will cause it to overflow, that is, the solder will spread beyond the papered edges.”
“In the process of joining such parts as the handle and spout by hard solder, that is to say, solder as difficult to melt as the main body of the object, one of the most valuable inventions for chemical processes, the blow-pipe, is employed with the aid of two other great scientific aids of modern times.”
“It could all be made of tin; but then it is necessary to use solder, which is liable to melt and cause leaks.”
“A solder is a metal alloy used to bond metals together.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘solder’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
veal, valve, used, yak, wax, wan, teak, vat, vas, strip, use, strap and 4515 more...
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TECH - metals and alloys
embrittle, braze, nickel alloy, metallize, Inconel, eutectic, metalize, vapor pressure, corrosion-resistant, alloy, stainless steel, neutron flux and 262 more...
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•Unexpected Pronunciation, Now! with ...
Inspired to publicity by the conversation at segway. Thanks, pals!
boatswain, clapboard, waistcoat, victuals, forecastle, solder, colonel, ensign, worcestershire sauce, creatinine, coelacanth, banal and 79 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Lesson 1
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GRE list #4
runic, sagacious, salacious, salient, salutary, sanctimony, sanguine, satiate, saturnine, seine, seminal, sidereal and 103 more...
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amagnano's Words
truculent, churlish, antipathy, sociopathy, loquacious, disheveled, pouilly-fuisse, enamored, marked, assuage, ascetic, pagan and 190 more...
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Is it morning yet?
coterie, lexeme, counterbalance, forthright, pigtail, ponytail, french-braid, barrette, listless, counsel, sitting duck, dead duck and 268 more...
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wreckingball's Words
reprehensible, problematize, crepuscular, deleterious, pestilent, strumpet, draggletail, interrobang, meretricious, systematize, schadenfreude, capricious and 443 more...
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kmalladi's favorites
edification, penchant, ablution, extricate, frank, triumvirate, trifecta, egregious, hoi polloi, articulate, antediluvian, brusque and 291 more...
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The Amulet of Samarkand
Words and phrases from Jonathan Stroud's The Amulet of Samarkand.
flunky, provenance, pare, rabbit in a covert, short shrift, bunker, trainers, tatty, lob, injunction, doss, bluster and 193 more...
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Kaichi's Wordie Darlings, or I'm a Lo...
persnickety, discombobulated, braggadoccio, anthropomorphous, antelucan, confluxible, anomalous, poseur, gallivant, poppycock, falderal, gewgaw and 705 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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action
braise, tamp, arc, telemetry, doff, dote, atone, covet, defuse, steep, curb, dip and 79 more...
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AmorFati's list
New(ish) words..
impetus, happenstance, coup de grâce, visceral, sentient, wistful, fingerling, transcend, canted, sinew, errant, harking and 85 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for solder.

philfrance I use a soldering iron to solder with Jan 25, 2011