ceruse

[ seer-oos, si-roos ]

noun

a pigment composed of white lead.

Origin of ceruse

1350–1400; Middle English <Latin cērussa

Words Nearby ceruse

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use ceruse in a sentence

But art has taught her to supply furrowed deformities with ceruse boxes, and to repair a decayed complexion with an Italian fucus.
A Select Collection of Old English Plays | Robert Dodsley
You will temper minium and ceruse and carmine with clear of egg.
Illumination and its Development in the Present Day | Sidney Farnsworth
Spanish green was verdigris, and minium was red lead, while ceruse was white lead.
Illumination and its Development in the Present Day | Sidney Farnsworth
A pot of ceruse, my child, that I took out of a lady's under petticoat pocket.
The Beaux-Stratagem | George Farquhar
Minium sometimes leans to orange; and there is made from ceruse a peculiar red, Mineral Orange.
Field's Chromatography | George Field

British Dictionary definitions for ceruse

ceruse

/ (səˈruːs) /

noun

another name for white lead (def. 1)

Origin of ceruse

C14: from Old French céruse, from Latin cērussa, perhaps ultimately from Greek kēros wax

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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