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.

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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

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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 compounds of mercury attracted considerable attention, mainly on account of their medicinal properties; mercuric oxide and corrosive sublimate were known to pseudo-Geber, and the nitrate and basic sulphate to “Basil Valentine.”

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 1 "Châtelet" to "Chicago" by Various

The molecule of mercuric oxide and the atom of oxygen which it contains have the ratio 216: 16.

From An Elementary Study of Chemistry by McPherson, William

This same ratio must therefore hold between the weight of any given quantity of mercuric oxide and that of the oxygen which it contains.

From An Elementary Study of Chemistry by McPherson, William