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shellac

shel·lac

UK/ʃəˈlæk/ US/ʃɛˈlæk/ uncommon informal us
noun (2) verb (1)

noun

1.

lac purified by heating and filtering; usually in thin orange or yellow flakes but sometimes bleached white

2.

verb

1.

cover with shellac

  • “She wanted to shellac the desk to protect it from water spots”

Origin

From shell + lac, calque of French laque en écailles (literally “lac in scales/shells”).

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.