latex
Americannoun
plural
latices, latexes-
a milky liquid in certain plants, as milkweeds, euphorbias, poppies, or the plants yielding India rubber, that coagulates on exposure to air.
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Chemistry. any emulsion in water of finely divided particles of synthetic rubber or plastic.
noun
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a whitish milky fluid containing protein, starch, alkaloids, etc, that is produced by many plants. Latex from the rubber tree is used in the manufacture of rubber
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a suspension of synthetic rubber or plastic in water, used in the manufacture of synthetic rubber products, etc
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The colorless or milky sap of certain trees and plants, such as the milkweed and the rubber tree, that hardens when exposed to the air. Latex usually contains gum resins, waxes, and oils, and sometimes toxic substances.
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A manufactured emulsion of synthetic rubber or plastic droplets in water that resembles the latex of plants. It is used in paints, adhesives, and synthetic rubber products.
Etymology
Origin of latex
1655–65; < New Latin, special use of Latin latex water, juice, liquid
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Cortez is the Latex King of Los Angeles, known for developing new techniques with the material, or imagining it in completely new contexts.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 10, 2024
Latex floating on the top of the remaining liquid is slurped up with a pipette and rinsed up to three times for purification, and then dried.
From Science Daily • Jan. 23, 2024
Doja Cat, always pushing her fashion envelope, showed up in a Latex, one-shoulder and skintight black gown with long matching gloves from Atelier Versace.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 5, 2023
It was “a story of the triumph over the military-industrial complex by the International Latex Corporation, best known by its consumer brand of ‘Playtex’—a victory of elegant softness over engineered hardness.”
From The New Yorker • Jul. 20, 2019
Latex remained for several hours in the refrigerating chambers of an ordinary ice-making plant.
From The Preparation of Plantation Rubber by Morgan, Sidney
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
