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Macassar oil

noun

  1. an oil derived from materials said to be obtained from Macassar, formerly used as a hairdressing.
  2. a similar oil or preparation for the hair.


Macassar oil

noun

  1. an oily preparation formerly put on the hair to make it smooth and shiny
“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 Macassar oil1

First recorded in 1800–10
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Word History and Origins

Origin of Macassar oil1

C19: so called because its ingredients were originally claimed to have come from Makassar
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Example Sentences

And in spite of Macassar oil, and bear's oil, and other certain promoters of luxuriant, soft, and glossy tresses, her locks continued scanty, stringy, stiff, and disorderly.

His accents mild took up the tale: He said "I go my ways, And when I find a mountain rill, I set it in a blaze; And thence they make a stuff they call Rowlands' Macassar Oil— Yet two-pence-halfpenny is all They give me for my toil!"

The somewhat melodramatic investigations of a thick layer of Rowland's Macassar oil and a thin layer of fair hair disclosed an unmistakable weal immediately above the left temple of the noble martyr in the cause of public duty.

Macassar Oil.—It is said to be compounded of the following ingredients:—To three quarts of common oil, add half-a-pint of spirits of wine, three ounces of cinnamon powder, and two ounces of bergamot; heat the whole in a large pipkin.

But his thick reddish hair was already greying, though "darkened by the lavish use of macassar oil."

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