methyl alcohol

noun

Chemistry.

1. a colorless, volatile, water-soluble, poisonous liquid, CH 4 O, obtained by the destructive distillation of wood or the incomplete oxidation of natural gas, or produced synthetically from carbon monoxide and hydrogen, used chiefly as a solvent, a fuel, and an automobile antifreeze and in the synthesis of formaldehyde.

methyl alcohol

noun

1. another name for methanol

methyl alcohol

1. See methanol

Word History and Origins

Origin of methyl alcohol¹

First recorded in 1840–50