Library / English Dictionary

SHELLAC

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: shellacked    , shellacking   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A thin varnish made by dissolving lac in ethanol; used to finish wood

Synonyms:

shellac; shellac varnish

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("shellac" is a kind of...):

varnish (a coating that provides a hard, lustrous, transparent finish to a surface)

Meronyms (substance of "shellac"):

lac (resinlike substance secreted by certain lac insects; used in e.g. varnishes and sealing wax)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "shellac"):

French polish; French polish shellac (a varnish for wood consisting of shellac dissolved in alcohol)

Derivation:

shellac (cover with shellac)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Lac purified by heating and filtering; usually in thin orange or yellow flakes but sometimes bleached white

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("shellac" is a kind of...):

lac (resinlike substance secreted by certain lac insects; used in e.g. varnishes and sealing wax)

Meronyms (substance of "shellac"):

stick lac (lac in its natural state as scraped off twigs and dried)

Derivation:

shellac (cover with shellac)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cover with shellac

Example:

She wanted to shellac the desk to protect it from water spots

Synonyms:

shellac; shellack

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "shellac" is one way to...):

seal; varnish (cover with varnish)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

shellac (a thin varnish made by dissolving lac in ethanol; used to finish wood)

shellac (lac purified by heating and filtering; usually in thin orange or yellow flakes but sometimes bleached white)

Credits