depilatory
Americanadjective
noun
-
a depilatory agent.
-
such an agent in a mild liquid or cream form for temporarily removing unwanted hair from the body.
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of depilatory
1595–1605; < Medieval Latin dēpilātōrius < Latin dēpilā ( re ) ( see depilate) + -tōrius -tory 1
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.
See Examples For:
Since this is feel-good TV, McKinnon quietly strides over to the man and places a can of depilatory powder on his sink top, giving him a meaningful look before walking away.
From Salon ● Oct. 10, 2025
Gottlieb was, in the early sixties, put in charge of a plan to depose Fidel Castro by making his beard fall out, but he couldn’t figure out how to deploy a depilatory.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 26, 2019
Has some sort of depilatory polluted London's water?
From New York Times ● Nov. 14, 2017
If you ceased all depilatory activity now, you could be sasquatch-perfect by the time Memorial Day rolls around.
From Slate ● Nov. 24, 2014
I used to believe that the expression “caught by the short hairs” meant a captive held with a depilatory string.
From "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston
A curious account of hair-erasing, and why people have tried clamshell razors, lasers, lye depilatories, tweezers, waxes, threading and electrolysis to try and free themselves from hairiness.
From Economist ● Dec. 3, 2015
And whole categories of ads are barred from The New Yorker's pages, including ads for vitamin tablets, slimming devices and depilatories.
From Newsweek ● Feb. 20, 2015
No matter what expensive and complex weapons are used — razor blades, electric shavers, tweezers, waxing, depilatories, electrolysis — hair, like crab grass, always grows back and eventually wins.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2012
Neet, first hair-remover to be marketed in cream form, had a 1928 sale equal to half that of all other depilatories combined, and earned more than $200,000 in the six months ending June 30, 1929.
From Time Magazine Archive
Too late he remembered that twenty years had elapsed since the permanent depilatories were first invented and ten since he'd used one and stopped having to shave.
From Waste Not, Want by Dryfoos, Dave
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.
