borax
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English boras, from Anglo-Norman boreis, from Medieval Latin baurach (“borax”), from Arabic بَوْرَق (bawraq), from Middle Persian bwlk' (bōrag), which yielded Persian بوره (bure).
NounEdit
borax (uncountable)
- A white or gray/grey crystalline salt, with a slight alkaline taste, used as a flux, in soldering metals, making enamels, fixing colors/colours on porcelain, and as a soap, etc.
- (chemistry) The sodium salt of boric acid, Na2B4O7, either anhydrous or with 5 or 10 molecules of water of crystallisation; sodium tetraborate.
- (sometimes attributive) Cheap or tawdry furniture or other works of industrial design.
- 1977, Harlan Ellison, Jeffty is Five
- Furniture isn't made to last thirty years or longer because they took a survey and found that young homemakers like to throw their furniture out and bring in all new, color-coded borax every seven years.
- 1977, Harlan Ellison, Jeffty is Five
SynonymsEdit
- E285 when used as a preservative
Derived termsEdit
Derived terms
TranslationsEdit
crystalline salt
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(chemistry) Na2B4O7
VerbEdit
borax (third-person singular simple present boraxes, present participle boraxing, simple past and past participle boraxed)
- (transitive) To treat with borax.
Further readingEdit
- David Barthelmy (1997–2021), “Borax”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
- “borax”, in Mindat.org[1], Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2021.
- borax at the Free Dictionary
RomanianEdit
EtymologyEdit
NounEdit
borax n (uncountable)