glycerine, glycerin
(ˈglɪsərɪn, -iːn)
[mod. f. Gr. γλυκερός sweet + -in, -ine (see quot. 1842).]
1. A colourless, sweet, syrupy liquid obtained from animal and vegetable oils and fats by saponification. Largely used in Med. as an ointment and emollient dressing, as a vehicle for medicaments, etc. Chemically it is a triatomic alcohol, the hydrate of glyceryl. The name glycerol is now preferred in systematic chemical nomenclature.
| 1838 T. Thomson Chem. Org. Bodies 436 Glycerin is evolved, and a fatty acid, which combines with the alkali, and forms the soap. 1842 Penny Cycl. XXII. 169/1 He [Chevreul] also discovered that stearin is composed of stearic acid and a peculiar principle which on account of its sweet taste he named glycerin. 1868 Q. Rev. No. 248. 347 Another material which was for a long time considered a noxious refuse..is glycerine. 1874 Roscoe Elem. Chem. xxxvi. 387 The natural oils and fats are all compounds of glycerin, chiefly with palmitic, oleic, or stearic acids. 1875 H. C. Wood Therap. (1879) 584 In man no symptoms of poisoning have ever been produced by glycerine. |
2. Formerly used as a general name for the group of alcohols of which glycerine is a member.
| 1866 Roscoe Elem. Chem. xxxvi. 315 The glycerines [in later eds. glycerins] of the mono- and dicarbon series have not been prepared; that of the tri-carbon series is best known; amyl glycerine has also been prepared. |
3. Pharmacy. Applied to preparations consisting of a specified substance dissolved or suspended in glycerine.
| 1879 St. George's Hosp. Rep. IX. 565 Glycerine of tannin. |
4. attrib. and Comb. glycerine tear, a drop of glycerine used in theatrical make-up to simulate a tear (tear n.1).
| 1864 Glycerin ether [see glyceride]. 1876 tr. Wagner's Gen. Pathol. 579 Lactic acid (isomeric with glycerin-aldehyde). 1898 Daily News 20 July 9/4 Glycerine makers. [1926 Maines & Grant Wise-Crack Dict. 7/1 Cork the glycerine, stop the movie tears.] 1934 C. Lambert Music Ho! iv. 270 Even synthetic sentiment, the musical equivalent of glycerine tears, is harder to achieve than abstraction. 1969 Listener 13 Nov. 669/1 In a scene where Genevieve Page is producing the required tears with frightening realism, Wilder instructs the make-up man to add to them. ‘Glycerine tears..great big Hollywood false tears...’ |