shellac
Americannoun
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lac that has been purified and formed into thin sheets, used for making varnish shellac varnish by dissolving it in alcohol or a similar solvent.
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formerly, a phonograph record made of a breakable material containing shellac, especially one to be played at 78 r.p.m..
In the antique shop I found a stack of old shellacs with recordings of great wartime classics.
verb (used with object)
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to coat or treat with shellac.
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Slang.
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to defeat; trounce.
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to thrash soundly.
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noun
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a yellowish resin secreted by the lac insect, esp a commercial preparation of this used in varnishes, polishes, and leather dressings
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Also called: shellac varnish. a varnish made by dissolving shellac in ethanol or a similar solvent
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a gramophone record based on shellac
verb
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to coat or treat (an article) with a shellac varnish
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slang to defeat completely
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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shellacsimple
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shellacssimple
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have shellackedperfect
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has shellackedperfect
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am shellackingprogressive
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are shellackingprogressive
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is shellackingprogressive
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have been shellackingperfect progressive
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has been shellackingperfect progressive
Past
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shellackedsimple
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had shellackedperfect
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was shellackingprogressive
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were shellackingprogressive
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had been shellackingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of shellac
First recorded in 1705–15; shell + lac 1, translation of French laque en écailles “lac in thin plates”
Explanation
You might paint a layer of shellac, or varnish, on a bench built from reclaimed and stained wood, to protect it and give it a glossy sheen. This noun, mainly associated with a thin varnish, displays its origins plainly: the main ingredient is lac, a resinous substance secreted by some scale insects. Shellac started making the rounds in English in the 18th century and enjoyed a vogue a century later as the main constituent of phonograph records. It originally came from the French laque en écailles, or "lac in thin plates."
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.
See Examples For:
It took the combination of shellac discs, electronic amplification and an automatic record-changer for National Automatic Music Company to manufacture the first 20-song multiplay machines in 1927.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 14, 2026
Human societies have used plastics that occur naturally in the environment for hundreds of years, in the form of rubber, horn and shellac.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2025
Instead, “People getting ready to do things” is spelled out in egg yolk, besmirching the virginal purity of its white satin support; and “It’s only vanishing cream” is translucent shellac disappearing against deathly black.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 7, 2024
For a decade, he lived rent-free in a warehouse crammed with 20 artists, the smell of paint and shellac commingling with fumes from plastic melted by a businessman making toys.
From New York Times ● Sep. 22, 2022
Outside’s been dunked in a bucket of shiny clear shellac.
From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett
Ms. Zacarías shellacs a thin veneer of seriousness on the play by having the actors intone into microphones various statistics vaguely pertaining to the plotline.
From New York Times ● Oct. 7, 2015
Sculptor Fingesten works chiefly in concrete and stucco, gets his variety of texture and color by mixing pigments into the wet cement or plaster, coating some figures with beeswax, finishing others with shellacs and acids.
From Time Magazine Archive
Though the sound is monaural, it has been restored lovingly and retains much of the warmth that characterized the best of Europe's prewar 78-r.p.m. shellacs.
From Time Magazine Archive
He runs three miles, showers, shellacs his white-gray hair and hops into the back of a black government sedan that waits outside his home in suburban Virginia.
From Time Magazine Archive
There's ice, usually, lots of it, that shellacs the sidewalks and windshields that then need to be scraped.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
Retail outposts, brick-and-mortar food joints, and text-based media have not been thriving sectors for a while now, but they’ve been especially shellacked in the weird post-pandemic economy.
From Slate ● Apr. 16, 2026
Her best friend, Max, who was unofficially adopted by Suzanna’s parents and is shellacked in cynicism as played by the excellent Alden Ehrenreich, exhorts her to pull herself together and face her “big girl problems.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 7, 2026
It’s an oddly false performance that comes across even stiffer as she’s been shellacked with thick makeup and wig-like hair.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2025
Three months ago, the Scots were shellacked 3-0 at home by Greece, halting any sort of momentum built from three wins on the spin.
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2025
The dolls were made of clay and shellacked with candle wax.
From "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya
Even Curaçao, the smallest country ever to play in the World Cup, bounced back from a 7-1 shellacking at the hands of Germany to secure its first ever point with a draw against Ecuador.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
The Lakers lost by almost 30 points per game in their four-game series against the Thunder during the regular season, and one of the games was a 43-point shellacking.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 5, 2026
Trade-driven gains for industries such as textiles or jewelry are more than offset, markets-wise, by the shellacking India’s IT outsourcers are taking from the global software selloff.
From Barron's ● Feb. 19, 2026
North Carolina’s season began on Labor Day with a 48-14 shellacking by TCU in prime time.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2025
She had to lay down various layers, like shellacking a Stradivarius.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
