smalt

American  

[smawlt] / smɔlt /

noun

1. a coloring agent made of blue glass produced by fusing silica, potassium carbonate, and cobalt oxide, used in powdered form to add color to vitreous materials.

---

smalt British  

/ smɔːlt /

noun

1. a type of silica glass coloured deep blue with cobalt oxide

2. a pigment made by crushing this glass, used in colouring enamels

3. the blue colour of this pigment

---

Etymology

Origin of smalt

1550–60; < Middle French < Italian smalto smalto

Example Sentences

“As for me, I will grab even this smalt chance to get a decent man in the palace,” said Auntie.

From "Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti" by Frances Temple

The inferior kinds of smalt are occasionally adulterated with chalk.

From Field's Chromatography or Treatise on Colours and Pigments as Used by Artists by Salter, Thomas

This substance, carefully prepared in a special manner and ground to a fine powder, forms the well known water-colour pigment called smalt.

From British Manufacturing Industries Pottery, Glass and Silicates, Furniture and Woodwork. by Arnoux, L.

The smalt is usually composed of one part of calcined cobalt, fused with two parts of powder of flint and one of pot-ash.

From Heads of Lectures on a Course of Experimental Philosophy: Particularly Including Chemistry by Priestley, Joseph

The kitchen furniture, smalt and gum arabic, had cost them eighteen-pence—just half their joint stock.

From The Boys' And Girls' Library by Various