DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan

 Oil n.  Any one of a great variety of unctuous combustible substances, more viscous than and not miscible with water; as, olive oil, whale oil, rock oil, etc.  They are of animal, vegetable, or mineral origin and of varied composition, and they are variously used for food, for solvents, for anointing, lubrication, illumination, etc.  By extension, any substance of an oily consistency; as, oil of vitriol.
 Note: ☞ The mineral oils are varieties of petroleum.  See Petroleum.  The vegetable oils are of two classes, essential oils (see under Essential), and natural oils which in general resemble the animal oils and fats.  Most of the natural oils and the animal oils and fats consist of ethereal salts of glycerin, with a large number of organic acids, principally stearic, oleic, and palmitic, forming respectively stearin, olein, and palmitin.  Stearin and palmitin prevail in the solid oils and fats, and olein in the liquid oils.  Mutton tallow, beef tallow, and lard are rich in stearin, human fat and palm oil in palmitin, and sperm and cod-liver oils in olein.  In making soaps, the acids leave the glycerin and unite with the soda or potash.
 Animal oil, Bone oil, Dipple's oil, etc. Old Chem., a complex oil obtained by the distillation of animal substances, as bones. See Bone oil, under Bone.
 Drying oils, Essential oils. Chem. See under Drying, and Essential.
 Ethereal oil of wine, Heavy oil of wine. Chem. See under Ethereal.
 Fixed oil. Chem. See under Fixed.
 Oil bag Zool., a bag, cyst, or gland in animals, containing oil.
 Oil beetle Zool., any beetle of the genus Meloe and allied genera.  When disturbed they emit from the joints of the legs a yellowish oily liquor.  Some species possess vesicating properties, and are used instead of cantharides.
 Oil box, or Oil cellar Mach., a fixed box or reservoir, for lubricating a bearing; esp., the box for oil beneath the journal of a railway-car axle.
 Oil cake. See under Cake.
 Oil cock, a stopcock connected with an oil cup. See Oil cup.
 Oil color. (a) A paint made by grinding a coloring substance in oil.  (b) Such paints, taken in a general sense. -- (b) a painting made from such a paint.
 Oil cup, a cup, or small receptacle, connected with a bearing as a lubricator, and usually provided with a wick, wire, or adjustable valve for regulating the delivery of oil.
 Oil engine, a gas engine worked with the explosive vapor of petroleum.
 Oil gas, inflammable gas procured from oil, and used for lighting streets, houses, etc.
 Oil gland. (a) Zool. A gland which secretes oil; especially in birds, the large gland at the base of the tail.  (b) Bot. A gland, in some plants, producing oil.
 Oil green, a pale yellowish green, like oil.
 Oil of brick, empyreumatic oil obtained by subjecting a brick soaked in oil to distillation at a high temperature, -- used by lapidaries as a vehicle for the emery by which stones and gems are sawn or cut. --Brande & C.
 Oil of talc, a nostrum made of calcined talc, and famous in the 17th century as a cosmetic. [Obs.] --B. Jonson.
 Oil of vitriol Chem., strong sulphuric acid; -- so called from its oily consistency and from its forming the vitriols or sulphates.
 Oil of wine, Œnanthic ether. See under Œnanthic.
 Oil painting. (a) The art of painting in oil colors. (b) Any kind of painting of which the pigments are originally ground in oil.
 Oil palm Bot., a palm tree whose fruit furnishes oil, esp. Elaeis Guineensis. See Elaeis.
 Oil sardine Zool., an East Indian herring (Clupea scombrina), valued for its oil.
 Oil shark Zool. (a) The liver shark. (b) The tope.
 Oil still, a still for hydrocarbons, esp. for petroleum.
 Oil test, a test for determining the temperature at which petroleum oils give off vapor which is liable to explode.
 Oil tree. Bot. (a) A plant of the genus Ricinus (Ricinus communis), from the seeds of which castor oil is obtained. (b) An Indian tree, the mahwa. See Mahwa. (c) The oil palm.
 To burn the midnight oil, to study or work late at night.
 Volatle oils. See Essential oils, under Essential.

 Pal·ma Chris·ti  Bot. A plant (Ricinus communis) with ornamental peltate and palmately cleft foliage, growing as a woody perennial in the tropics, and cultivated as an herbaceous annual in temperate regions; -- called also castor-oil plant. [Sometimes corrupted into palmcrist.]
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 Pal·mic a.  Chem. Of, pertaining to, or derived from, the castor-oil plant (Ricinus communis, or Palma Christi) and other species of the family Euphorbiaceae; -- formerly used to designate an acid now called ricinoleic acid (d-12-hydroxyoleic acid, C18H34O3). [Obsoles.]
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 ric·in·o·le·ic ac·id n. Chem. An organic acid (C18H34O3) obtained from the castor-oil plant (Ricinus communis, or Palma Christi) and other species of the family Euphorbiaceae; chemicaly it is d-12-hydroxyoleic acid (CH3(CH2)5.CH(OH).CH2.CH=CH.(CH2)7COOH).   Formerly called palmic acid.
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 Ric·i·nus n.  Bot. A genus of plants of the Spurge family, containing but one species (Ricinus communis), the castor-oil plant.  The fruit is three-celled, and contains three large seeds from which castor oil is expressed. See Palma Christi.
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 Cas·tor bean Bot. The bean or seed of the castor-oil plant (Ricinus communis, or Palma Christi.)
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 Cas·tor oil A mild cathartic oil, expressed or extracted from the seeds of the Ricinus communis, or Palma Christi. When fresh the oil is inodorous and insipid.
 Castor-oil plant. Same as Palma Christi.
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 Ricinus communis
      n : large shrub of tropical Africa and Asia having large palmate
          leaves and spiny capsules containing seeds that are the
          source of castor oil and ricin; widely naturalized
          throughout the tropics [syn: castor-oil plant, castor
          bean plant, palma christi, palma christ]