Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A durable, washable material made in sheets by pressing a mixture of heated linseed oil, rosin, powdered cork, and pigments onto a burlap or canvas backing. Linoleum is used as a covering especially for floors.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A kind of floor-cloth made of linseed-oil which has been oxidized to a dense rubber-like consistency.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Linseed oil brought to various degrees of hardness by some oxidizing process, as by exposure to heated air, or by treatment with chloride of sulphur. In this condition it is used for many of the purposes to which India rubber has been applied.
  • noun A kind of floor cloth made by laying hardened linseed oil mixed with ground cork on a canvas backing.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An inexpensive waterproof covering used especially for floors, made from solidified linseed oil over a burlap or canvas backing, or from its modern replacement, polyvinyl chloride.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a floor covering

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Originally a trademark.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Coined c. 1864 by inventor Frederick Walton, from Latin linum ("flax") + oleum ("oil"). Used as a trade name but never registered as a trademark, it was the first product whose name was ruled to be genericized.

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Examples

  • The top is some kind of linoleum from the 1960's which I kept painting year after year and covering with with a clear waterproof sealer.

    Kitchen Replacement 2008

  • The top is some kind of linoleum from the 1960's which I kept painting year after year and covering with with a clear waterproof sealer.

    Archive 2008-12-01 2008

  • Our beds are best described as two wide, wooden tables covered in linoleum which may or may not have been cleaned with soap and water since they were built.

    Boing Boing: September 25, 2005 - October 1, 2005 Archives 2005

  • The parquet floors were covered in linoleum, the high plaster ceilings hidden by acoustic tiles.

    Someplace Like Home 1996

  • [...] or vinyl for infantile bedrooms Kitchen soils in linoleum Soils of PVC of Quarry stone Route/Freshome Posted by darrell jones at 11: 05 [...]

    Interior Design Patterns from Hand 2009

  • Lying on the linoleum was a severed moose hoof and a half rack of frozen ribs.

    The Tenth Circle Jodi Picoult 2006

  • Lying on the linoleum was a severed moose hoof and a half rack of frozen ribs.

    The Tenth Circle Picoult, Jodi, 1966- 2006

  • Those bright red drops spattering the linoleum were the final outrage.

    Harvest Tess Gerritsen 1996

  • Those bright red drops spattering the linoleum were the final outrage.

    Harvest Tess Gerritsen 1996

  • Those bright red drops spattering the linoleum were the final outrage.

    Harvest Tess Gerritsen 1996

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