speculum metal

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noun

any of several bronze alloys with a high tin content, often containing other materials, as silver, brass, lead, zinc, or arsenic, used for making mirrors and reflectors.

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Also called speculum, speculum alloy.

Origin of speculum metal

First recorded in 1790–1800

Words nearby speculum metal

speculative fiction, speculative philosophy, speculator, speculum, speculum forceps, speculum metal, sped, Spee, speech, speech act, speech bulb

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use speculum metal in a sentence

The taste of metal cutlery after years of plastic can also taste funny.
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In previous decades, hip-hop was something typically preached against, much like rock & roll and heavy metal before it.
Down With the King: Christianity Isn’t Hiding in Rap’s Closet|Stereo Williams|December 28, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Woods were shredded, the earth trembled and the ground exploded in showers of stone and red-hot metal splinters.
Hitler’s Hail Mary|James A. Warren|December 20, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Barron Industries Michigan-based company that produces metal castings for various industries.
The 26 Next Hobby Lobbys|Abby Haglage|December 17, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Once a month he attaches a device to his chest, clamps metal bracelets on his wrists, and hooks the whole thing up to a telephone.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Fade to Black: The Great Director’s Final Days|David Freeman|December 13, 2014|DAILY BEAST
In the metal of the tenor several coins are visible, one being a Spanish dollar of 1742.
Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham|Thomas T. Harman and Walter Showell
The metal is then removed, and washed successively with very dilute sodium hydroxid solution, alcohol, and ether.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis|James Campbell Todd
All the parts are made of metal, so that no change in the weather can affect their relative positions.
The Recent Revolution in Organ Building|George Laing Miller
Indirect lighting gave a pretty gleam to the metal gadgets on the tables.
Fee of the Frontier|Horace Brown Fyfe
A Cremona Violin is, to a rich amateur, a loadstone that is sure to attract the shining metal from the depths of his purse.
Violins and Violin Makers|Joseph Pearce

British Dictionary definitions for speculum metal

speculum metal

noun

a white hard brittle corrosion-resistant alloy of copper (55–70 per cent) and tin with smaller amounts of other metals. It takes a high polish and is used for mirrors, lamp reflectors, ornamental ware, etc

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