Vaseline

[vas-uh-leen, vas-uh-leen]

Trademark.

a brand of petrolatum.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for vaseline

Contemporary Examples of vaseline

Pure mayhem is what happened next, as Tyra ran around the studio screaming to the audience, “You get Vaseline.”
Adios, Tyra! Her 14 Most Outrageous Moments
Sujay Kumar, The Daily Beast Video
May 27, 2010

Historical Examples of vaseline

After the terminals are thoroughly brightened, they should be covered with vaseline.
The Automobile Storage Battery
O. A. Witte
After washing the parts, dry them and cover them with vaseline.
The Automobile Storage Battery
O. A. Witte
Then cover the Vaseline with tape, which Should be run well back from the terminal.
The Automobile Storage Battery
O. A. Witte
This last was in reference to a bottle of Vaseline, which Tom produced.
Tom Swift and his Motor-boat
Victor Appleton
The dielectric consisted of about equal parts of hard paraffin and vaseline.
On Laboratory Arts
Richard Threlfall

British Dictionary definitions for vaseline

Vaseline

noun

a trademark for petrolatum

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

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]

vaseline in Medicine

Vaseline

[văs′ə-lēn′, văs′ə-lēn′]

A trademark for a brand of petroleum jelly.