rosin

American  

[roz-in] / ˈrɒz ɪn /

noun

1. Chemistry. the yellowish to amber, translucent, hard, brittle, fragmented resin left after distilling the oil of turpentine from the crude oleoresin of the pine: used chiefly in making varnishes, varnish and paint driers, printing inks, and for rubbing on the bows of such string instruments as the violin.

2. resin.

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verb (used with object)

• rosins,
  present (3rd person singular)
• rosined,
  past participle,  past
• rosining
  present participle

1. to cover or rub with rosin.

rosin British  

/ ˈrɒzɪn /

noun

1. Also called: colophony.  a translucent brittle amber substance produced in the distillation of crude turpentine oleoresin and used esp in making varnishes, printing inks, and sealing waxes and for treating the bows of stringed instruments

2. (not in technical usage) another name for resin

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verb

1. (tr) to treat or coat with rosin

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• rosiny
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• rosining
  present
• rosined
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• rosin
  simple
• rosins
  simple
• have rosined
  perfect
• has rosined
  perfect
• am rosining
  progressive
• are rosining
  progressive
• is rosining
  progressive
• have been rosining
  perfect progressive
• has been rosining
  perfect progressive

Past

• rosined
  simple
• had rosined
  perfect
• was rosining
  progressive
• were rosining
  progressive
• had been rosining
  perfect progressive

Future

• will rosin
  simple
• will have rosined
  perfect
• will be rosining
  progressive
• will have been rosining
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of rosin

1300–50; Middle English < Old French, variant of resine resin

Explanation

Rosin is a sticky, semi-solid substance made from pine tree residue. It has many uses, including making a stringed instrument's bow vibrate more clearly. When you rosin your bow, you apply rosin to it. Rosin is a type of resin, the sticky material exuded by trees and plants. To use rosin, it needs to be heated — at room temperature, it's brittle and hard, but when it's warmed rosin becomes thick and melted. In addition to perfecting the sound of a bow on strings, rosin is also an ingredient in ink, glue, certain types of paper, and soap, among many other uses. The Greek root rhetine means "resin of the pine."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

rosin rosins rosined rosining

They passed time during rain delays playing bocce ball with a rosin bag, and Herbert had to win those competitions too.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 15, 2024

“OK, this is the rosin bag and a donut. Oh, my Lord. And I put them in my pocket.”

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 3, 2024

“But the rosin is also different than it is in Japan and works well with the balls here.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 11, 2024

Tichenor said he was unable to determine the exact substance, but that based on his training it appeared to be more sticky than rosin.

From Washington Times ● Aug. 23, 2023

Horses in vaulting acts are always white so that the powdered rosin that makes the performer’s feet stick to their backs won’t show.

From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen

Appropriate tests of those ingredients made separately on the skins of volunteers demonstrated that, apart from maceration and mechanical injury, rosins, pitch and smoke-cured wild rubber are the chief irritants.

From Time Magazine Archive

Several fairly successful paints of this type have recently appeared in the market; some of them being made of acid rosins compounded with vegetable oils.

From Paint Technology and Tests by Henry A. Gardner

It is extraordinary the number and variety of rosins in the market; some in most wonderfully contrived boxes designed to keep the rosin dust from making the fingers sticky, or—more probably—to sell!

From The Bow, Its History, Manufacture and Use 'The Strad' Library, No. III. by Henry Saint-George

The reaction is rather violent, and yields, in addition to well-defined crystalline substances, amorphous bodies resembling rosins.

From Synthetic Tannins by Georg Grasser

See-sawing, t' fiddler now begins The best that he is able; He rosins t' stick an' screws up t' pins An' jumps up on to t' table, To play that neet.

From Yorkshire Dialect Poems (1673-1915) and traditional poems by Frederic William Moorman

The cuíca, a Brazilian friction drum with a rosined stick fastened to its head, repeatedly yawns like a distant lion, while sirens and clanking anvils evoke an urban jungle.

From New York Times ● Jul. 16, 2010

They pulled tin cans along rosined strings behind fat old ladies and grinned at them.

From Time Magazine Archive

Asked critics, "Was it made by a pail covered with cowhide sliding on rosined cloth?"

From Time Magazine Archive

Last week the 106 members of the Boston Symphony, like thousands of symphonic musicians all over the U.S., polished their brasswork and rosined their bows for the start of a new season.

From Time Magazine Archive

The edge of the box and the scantling were rosined, and it was worked by two men sawing up and down.

From The Puddleford Papers, Or Humors of the West by H. H. Riley

She’ll spend too much time rosining her bow, and not enough tuning the strings.

From "Wintergirls" by Laurie Halse Anderson

I hand him the viola and start rosining the bow.

From "What the Night Sings" by Vesper Stamper

With practised skill he rapidly tightened the four strings into harmony; then, after carefully rosining the bow, rasped it with uncertain touch across them.

From The Upas Tree A Christmas Story for all the Year by Florence L. (Florence Louisa) Barclay

In the opposite corner stood Mop, rosining his bow and looking just the same as ever. 

From Life's Little Ironies by Thomas Hardy

Related Words

• paste
• wax