Bakelite

[bey-kuh-lahyt, beyk-lahyt]

Trademark.

a brand name for any of a series of thermosetting plastics prepared by heating phenol or cresol with formaldehyde and ammonia under pressure: used for radio cabinets, telephone receivers, electric insulators, and molded plastic ware.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for bakelite

Historical Examples of bakelite

This second dial was no more than a thin disk of hard rubber or bakelite, with a red scratch-mark on one side.
The Infra-Medians
Sewell Peaslee Wright
This is a name the Australians coined for synthetic resin made from phenol and formaldehyde like bakelite.
Creative Chemistry
Edwin E. Slosson
Pipestems and beads of bakelite have the clear brilliancy of amber and greater strength.
Creative Chemistry
Edwin E. Slosson
Bakelite, however, is only one of an indefinite number of such condensation products.
Creative Chemistry
Edwin E. Slosson
A phenolic condensation product closely related to bakelite and redmanol is condensite, the invention of Jonas Walter Aylesworth.
Creative Chemistry
Edwin E. Slosson

British Dictionary definitions for bakelite

Bakelite

noun

trademark any one of a class of thermosetting resins used as electric insulators and for making plastic ware, telephone receivers, etc

Word Origin for Bakelite

C20: named after L. H. Baekeland (1863–1944), Belgian-born US inventor; see -ite 1

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

Word Origin and History for bakelite

type of plastic widely used early 20c., 1909, from German Bakelit, named for Belgian-born U.S. physicist Leo Baekeland (1863-1944), who invented it. Originally a proprietary name, it is formed by the condensation of a phenol with an aldehyde.