Teflon

American

[tef-lon] / ˈtɛf lɒn /

Trademark.

a fluorocarbon polymer with slippery, nonsticking properties; polytetrafluoroethylene.

adjective

characterized by imperviousness to blame or criticism.

a Teflon politician.

Teflon British

/ ˈtɛflɒn /

noun

polytetrafluoroethylene, when used in nonstick cooking vessels

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

adjective

facetious denoting the ability to evade blame

the Teflon president

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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See Examples For:

Teflon

Take for example DuPont’s use of the chemical C8 to manufacture Teflon.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026

The judgment marks a rare legal defeat for Musk, often dubbed "Teflon Elon" for his ability to emerge unscathed from lawsuits he is expected to lose.

From Barron's ● Mar. 21, 2026

This is a historic dressing-down of somebody who thought they were made of Teflon.

From Slate ● Jan. 23, 2026

This grinding causes the materials to react at room temperature, breaking the carbon-fluorine bonds within Teflon and producing harmless carbon along with sodium fluoride, a stable salt widely used in fluoride toothpaste.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 27, 2025

They move fast and efficiently through dense mobs, as if they have a Teflon coat, very rarely bumping into one another.

From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023