mercuric oxide

American  

noun

Chemistry.

1. a slightly crystalline, water-soluble, poisonous compound, HgO, occurring as a coarse, orange-red powder red mercuric oxide or as a fine, orange-yellow powder yellow mercuric oxide: used chiefly as a pigment in paints and as an antiseptic in pharmaceuticals.

---

mercuric oxide British  

noun

1. Systematic name: mercury(II) oxide.  a soluble poisonous substance existing in red and yellow powdered forms: used as pigments. Formula: HgO

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mercuric oxide

Joseph Priestley first prepared pure oxygen by heating mercuric oxide, HgO:

From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019

Thus, when he found that a candle burned more brightly, and mice thrived, in the atmosphere created with his container of heated mercuric oxide, he thought this atmosphere was "dephlogisticated air."

From Time Magazine Archive

The equation HgO = Hg + O does not tell us that it is necessary to keep the mercuric oxide at a high temperature in order that the decomposition may go on.

From An Elementary Study of Chemistry by McPherson, William

If a few drops of corrosive sublimate be dropped on these crystals, a red spot will at once be produced by the formation of mercuric oxide.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 392, July 7, 1883 by Various

Or mercuric oxide, may be obtained either of a brick-red or orange-yellow colour.

From Field's Chromatography or Treatise on Colours and Pigments as Used by Artists by Salter, Thomas