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banana oil

[ buh-nan-uh oil ]

noun

  1. Also called am·yl ac·e·tate [am, -il , as, -i-teyt],. a sweet-smelling liquid ester, C 7 H 14 O 2 , a mixture of isomers derived from amyl alcohol and having the characteristic odor of bananas: used chiefly as a paint solvent and in artificial fruit flavors; amyl acetate.
  2. Slang. insincere talk; nonsense.


banana oil

noun

  1. a solution of cellulose nitrate in pentyl acetate or a similar solvent, which has a banana-like smell
  2. a nontechnical name for pentyl acetate
“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


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Word History and Origins

Origin of banana oil1

First recorded in 1925–30
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Idioms and Phrases

Nonsense, exaggerated flattery, as in I should be on television? Cut out the banana oil ! The precise analogy in this idiom is not clear, unless it is to the fact that banana oil, a paint solvent and artificial flavoring agent, has no relation to the fruit other than that it smells like it. Possibly it is a variation on snake oil , a term for quack medicine that was extended to mean nonsense. [1920s]
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Example Sentences

If there's any perfume fitter for a lost soul than attar of banana oil, it hasn't been discovered.

But, after all, it was the banana oil the aluminum paint was mixed with that turned the trick.

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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.

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