wood tar

noun

a dark viscid product obtained from wood by distillation or by slow burning without flame, used in its natural state to preserve timber, rope, etc., or subjected to further distillation to yield creosote, oils, and a final residuum, wood pitch.

Origin of wood tar

First recorded in 1855–60

Words Nearby wood tar

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use wood tar in a sentence

Pittacal, pit′a-kal, n. a blue substance obtained from wood-tar oil and used in dyeing.
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) | Various
wood tar likewise protects animal matter from change, by the creosote it contains.
A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines | Andrew Ure
Coal-tar and wood-tar or pitch, applied hot in thin coats, are also good and cheap preservatives for exposed wood-work.
Woodworking for Beginners | Charles Gardner Wheeler
Creasote or Kreozote is a term applied to the mixture of crude phenols obtained from the distillation of wood-tar.
Poisons: Their Effects and Detection | Alexander Wynter Blyth
It is a highly refractive, colourless, oily liquid, and was first obtained in 1832 by K. Reichenbach from beech-wood tar.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 6 | Various

British Dictionary definitions for wood tar

wood tar

noun

any tar produced by the destructive distillation of wood: used in producing tarred cord and rope and formerly in medicine as disinfectants and antiseptics

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

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