metallic soap

noun

, Chemistry.

1. any usually water-insoluble salt formed by the interaction of a fatty acid and a metal, especially lead or aluminum: used chiefly as a drier in paints and varnishes and for waterproofing textiles.

metallic soap

noun

1. any one of a number of colloidal stearates, palmitates, or oleates of various metals, including aluminium, calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc. They are used as bases for ointments, fungicides, fireproofing and waterproofing agents, and dryers for paints and varnishes

Word History and Origins

Origin of metallic soap¹

First recorded in 1915–20

Example Sentences

If it’s what experts believe it to be, the 4-inch cylinder, made of a metallic soap compound but commonly referred to as wax, plants a new historical marker in the city’s evolution as a commercial music powerhouse.

From Los Angeles Times

The material surrounding the wax cylinders is not really wax, he said, but something called metallic soap.

From New York Times

Formerly, this mineral matter was often determined in combination by weighing the separated metallic soap or by weighing it in conjunction with the insoluble impurities.

From Project Gutenberg

Petroleum ether, cold or only slightly warm, is not a good fat and metallic soap solvent, whereas hot kerosene dissolves these substances readily, and for this reason the committee has recommended the double solvent method so as to exclude metallic soaps which are determined below as soluble mineral matter.

From Project Gutenberg