Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Bitingly sarcastic.
- adjective Incisive and trenchant.
- adjective Bitingly painful.
- adjective Serving to fix colors in dyeing.
- noun A reagent, such as tannic acid, that fixes dyes to cells, tissues, or textiles or other materials.
- noun A corrosive substance, such as an acid, used in etching.
- transitive verb To treat with a mordant.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To imbue or treat with a mordant.
- Biting; keen; caustic; sarcastic; severe.
- Having the property of fixing colors.
- noun A metal chape covering one end of a strap or belt, especially if so arranged as to hook into a clasp on the other end to facilitate securing the belt round the person.
- noun In the fine arts:
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Biting; caustic; sarcastic; keen; severe.
- adjective (Dyeing & Calico Printing) Serving to fix colors.
- noun Any corroding substance used in etching.
- noun (Dyeing & Calico Printing) Any substance, as alum or copperas, which, having a twofold attraction for organic fibers and coloring matter, serves as a bond of union, and thus gives fixity to, or
bites in , the dyes. - noun (Gilding) Any sticky matter by which the gold leaf is made to adhere.
- transitive verb To subject to the action of, or imbue with, a mordant.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
biting ;caustic ;sarcastic ;keen ;severe . - noun Any substance used to
facilitate thefixing of adye to afibre ; usually ametallic compound which reacts with the dye usingchelation . - verb transitive To subject to the action of, or
imbue with, a mordant.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective harshly ironic or sinister
- adjective of a substance, especially a strong acid; capable of destroying or eating away by chemical action
- noun a substance used to treat leather or other materials before dyeing; aids in dyeing process
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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In the case of Cornelis Drebbel, who invented a bright red dye color by mixing cochineal with a tin mordant, we cannot prove that the inspiration for the invention was directly related to this production method for gold purples, but, even if the connection is only circumstantial, it is a circumstance we cannot completely ignore.
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The technique, attributed to Cornelis Drebbel, used a tin mordant to brighten the color produced by cochineal. 11 The discovery, as reported in the eighteenth century, was a fortuitous accident similar to that of Prussian blue; fortunate in that the discovery happened to someone able to recognize and exploit it. reference Drebbel, it was said, accidentally broke a container of tin-infused aqua regia over a container of the cochineal extract used in making thermometers.
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In using that expression (or the word mordant in connection with the troops) she made a gesture of kneading with her hand, putting her head on one side and half-closing her eyes like an art-student.
Time Regained 2003
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[25] Alum in this case is called a mordant, which is a substance that will impregnate the cloth with something which will hold the coloring matter.
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The original process may be summed up under the following heads: Printing or padding with an aluminous mordant, which is fixed and cleaned in the usual manner; dyeing in alizarin for reds with addition of calcium acetate; padding in sulpholeic acid and drying; steaming and soaping.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 286, June 25, 1881 Various
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The methods of employing the much more important group of colouring matters known as the mordant dyes, which comprise such well-known products as logwood, fustic and alizarine, require more attention.
The Dyeing of Cotton Fabrics A Practical Handbook for the Dyer and Student Franklin Beech
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Other dye-stuffs, such as fustic, Persian berries and Alizarine yellow, are best dyed on a basic chrome mordant, which is effected when tartar or oxalic acid is the assistant mordant used, or when some other form of chrome compound than bichrome is employed.
The Dyeing of Woollen Fabrics Franklin Beech
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Although there are now what are called "direct" cotton colors, the usual process is to first treat the cotton goods with a "mordant" -- various salts of aluminum, chromium, iron, tin and copper, fixing these on the fiber by means of tannin or alkali.
Textiles and Clothing Kate Heintz Watson
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A mordant is a substance which has an affinity for, or which can penetrate, the fiber to be colored, and which possesses the power of combining with the dyestuff and thus forming an insoluble compound upon the fiber.
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Yet it's hard not to recall the mordant words of Le Corbusier when he was designing his vast and ultimately doomed Plan Obus for the urban transformation of Algiers.
knitandpurl commented on the word mordant
I'd been familiar with this word in the "biting" or "caustic" sense, but not as a substance used to fix dyes. (From Sea Room by Adam Nicolson: "In order to reduce the liquidity of the animal end, the householders 'attended on their cows with large vessels to throw out the wash' - or to keep it as mordant for dyes - 'but still it must be wet and unwholesome" (pp 241-242)
May 8, 2007
johnmperry commented on the word mordant
means biting
June 23, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word mordant
Usage note in comment on cardinal purple.
October 4, 2017