The Collaborative International Dictionary
Alcohol \Al"co*hol\ ([a^]l"k[-o]*h[o^]l), n. [Cf. F. alcool, formerly written alcohol, Sp. alcohol alcohol, antimony, galena, OSp. alcofol; all fr. Ar. al-kohl a powder of antimony or galena, to paint the eyebrows with. The name was afterwards applied, on account of the fineness of this powder, to highly rectified spirits, a signification unknown in Arabia. The Sp. word has both meanings. Cf. Alquifou.]
An impalpable powder. [Obs.]
The fluid essence or pure spirit obtained by distillation. [Obs.]
--Boyle.-
Pure spirit of wine; pure or highly rectified spirit (called also ethyl alcohol or ethanol, CH3.CH2.OH); the spirituous or intoxicating element of fermented or distilled liquors, or more loosely a liquid containing it in considerable quantity. It is extracted by simple distillation from various vegetable juices and infusions of a saccharine nature, which have undergone vinous fermentation.
Note: [The ferementation is usually carried out by addition of brewer's yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae to an aqueous solution containing carbohydrates.]
Note: As used in the U. S. ``Pharmacop[oe]ia,'' alcohol contains 91 per cent by weight of ethyl alcohol and 9 per cent of water; and diluted alcohol (proof spirit) contains 45.5 per cent by weight of ethyl alcohol and 5
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5 per cent of water.
4. (Organic Chem.) A class of compounds analogous to vinic alcohol in constitution. Chemically speaking, they are hydroxides of certain organic radicals; as, the radical ethyl forms common or ethyl alcohol ( C2H
OH); methyl forms methyl alcohol ( CH3.OH) or wood spirit; amyl forms amyl alcohol ( C5H11.OH) or fusel oil, etc.
Wiktionary
n. A mixture of several higher-order alcohol (alcohols with more than two carbon atoms) formed as byproduct in the normal fermentation process. An excessive concentration, as in low-quality moonshine, causes unpleasant taste.
WordNet
n. a mixture of amyl alcohols and propanol and butanol formed from distillation of fermented liquors
Wikipedia
- Redirect Fusel alcohol
Usage examples of "fusel oil".
If they don't, and if they don't get the fire hot enough and keep it going steady, the liquor'll come out full of fusel oil, and that stuff just turns your stomach inside out.
Fruits exhausted by water or steam are darker, contain less oil and sink at once in water, but those exhausted by alcohol still retain 1 to 2 per cent, and are but little altered in appearance, they acquire, however, a peculiar fusel oil odour.
As a finishing touch, a little fusel oil or glycerin was added to give the whiskey a 'bead'&mdash.
I'll show you that I don't fear any competition from rubber made out of fusel oil or any other old kind of oil.
As for drinking, I am something of a chemist and I have yet to find a liquor that is free from traces of a number of poisons, some of them deadly, such as fusel oil, acetic acid, ethylacetate, acetal-dehyde and furfurol.
Now it was very pleasant to sit in the lab with its smells of fusel oil, kerosene, sulfur, ammonia, and permeating it all, the rich, complex odors of scorched and putrid flesh.