encaustic

[ en-kaw-stik ]

/ ɛnˈkɔ stɪk /

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adjective

painted with wax colors fixed with heat, or with any process in which colors are burned in.

noun

a work of art produced by an encaustic process.

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Origin of encaustic

1650–60; <Latin encausticus<Greek enkaustikós for burning in. See en-², caustic

OTHER WORDS FROM encaustic

en·caus·ti·cal·ly, adverb

Words nearby encaustic

en carré, encase, encasement, encash, encastré, encaustic, -ence, enceinte, Enceladus, encephal-, encephalalgia

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

How to use encaustic in a sentence

He works in encaustic, a mix of pigment and hot wax that requires a quick hand and whose immediacy has “a sonic quality,” he told a recent visitor to Hemphill Artworks.
In the galleries: Works of art emerge via waking up with a word in mind|Mark Jenkins|May 21, 2021|Washington Post
Pausias was the first to win fame in encaustic painting, although its technical processes had for some time been known.
History of Ancient Art|Franz von Reber
Encaustic Painting, a kind of painting practised by the ancients, for the perfecting of which heating or burning-in was required.
The New Gresham Encyclopedia|Various
Behind the Retablo some of the old pavement remains, of encaustic tiles in blue, white, and red.
Some Account of Gothic Architecture in Spain|George Edmund Street

There is a western gallery, and some seats made of glazed encaustic tiles on each side of the sanctuary.
Some Account of Gothic Architecture in Spain|George Edmund Street
Upon the adhesion to a smoothly-polished limestone, of an encaustic fat which forms the lines or traces.
A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines|Andrew Ure

British Dictionary definitions for encaustic

encaustic

/ (ɪnˈkɒstɪk) ceramics /

adjective

decorated by any process involving burning in colours, esp by inlaying coloured clays and baking or by fusing wax colours to the surface

noun

the process of burning in colours

a product of such a process

Derived forms of encaustic

encaustically, adverb

Word Origin for encaustic

C17: from Latin encausticus, from Greek enkaustikos, from enkaiein to burn in, from kaiein to burn

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