Adjacent Words

tartar emetic definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a poisonous colorless salt used as a mordant and in medicine [syn: tartar emetic, antimony potassium tartrate]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: circa 1704 a poisonous efflorescent crystalline salt C₈H₄K₂O₁₂Sb₂{bull}3H₂O of sweetish metallic taste that is used in dyeing as a mordant and especially formerly in medicine as an emetic and expectorant

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Tartar Tar"tar, n. [F. tartre (cf. Pr. tartari, Sp., Pg., & It. tartaro, LL. tartarum, LGr. ?); perhaps of Arabic origin.] 1. (Chem.) A reddish crust or sediment in wine casks, consisting essentially of crude cream of tartar, and used in marking pure cream of tartar, tartaric acid, potassium carbonate, black flux, etc., and, in dyeing, as a mordant for woolen goods; -- called also argol, wine stone, etc. 2. A correction which often incrusts the teeth, consisting of salivary mucus, animal matter, and phosphate of lime. Cream of tartar. (Chem.) See under Cream. Tartar emetic (Med. Chem.), a double tartrate of potassium and basic antimony. It is a poisonous white crystalline substance having a sweetish metallic taste, and used in medicine as a sudorific and emetic.