Vaseline
[vas-uh-leen, vas-uh-leen]
- a brand of petrolatum.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for vaseline
Contemporary Examples
Pure mayhem is what happened next, as Tyra ran around the studio screaming to the audience, “You get Vaseline.”
Historical Examples
After the terminals are thoroughly brightened, they should be covered with vaseline.
The Automobile Storage BatteryO. A. Witte
After washing the parts, dry them and cover them with vaseline.
The Automobile Storage BatteryO. A. Witte
Then cover the Vaseline with tape, which Should be run well back from the terminal.
The Automobile Storage BatteryO. A. Witte
This last was in reference to a bottle of Vaseline, which Tom produced.
Tom Swift and his Motor-boatVictor Appleton
The dielectric consisted of about equal parts of hard paraffin and vaseline.
On Laboratory ArtsRichard Threlfall
Vaseline
- a trademark for petrolatum
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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
Word Origin and History for vaseline
Vaseline
n.
1872, trademark for an ointment made from petroleum and marketed by Chesebrough Manufacturing Co., coined from German Wasser "water" + Greek elaion "oil" + scientific-sounded ending -ine. Robert A. Chesebrough was of the opinion that petroleum was a product of the underground decomposition of water.
The name is of mixed origin, being derived from Wasser, water, and elaion [Greek in the original], oil (water-oil), and indicates the belief of the discoverer that petroleum, the mother of Vaseline, is produced by the agency of heat and pressure from the carbon of certain rocks, and the hydrogen of water. ["The Monthly Review of Dental Surgery," February 1877]
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Vaseline
(văs′ə-lēn′, văs′ə-lēn′)- A trademark for a brand of petroleum jelly.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.