metallic soap

American

noun

Chemistry.

any usually water-insoluble salt formed by the interaction of a fatty acid and a metal, especially lead or aluminum: used chiefly as a drier in paints and varnishes and for waterproofing textiles.

metallic soap British

noun

any one of a number of colloidal stearates, palmitates, or oleates of various metals, including aluminium, calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc. They are used as bases for ointments, fungicides, fireproofing and waterproofing agents, and dryers for paints and varnishes

"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

Etymology

Origin of metallic soap

First recorded in 1915–20

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.

The material surrounding the wax cylinders is not really wax, he said, but something called metallic soap.

From New York Times • Apr. 20, 2018

Formerly, this mineral matter was often determined in combination by weighing the separated metallic soap or by weighing it in conjunction with the insoluble impurities.

From Soap-Making Manual A Practical Handbook on the Raw Materials, Their Manipulation, Analysis and Control in the Modern Soap Plant. by Thomssen, E. G.

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023