Crossword clues for mordant
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Mordant \Mor"dant\, a. [F., p. pr. of mordere to bite; L. mordere. See Morsel.]
Biting; caustic; sarcastic; keen; severe.
(Dyeing & Calico Printing) Serving to fix colors.
Mordant \Mor"dant\, n. [F., originally, biting.]
Any corroding substance used in etching.
(Dyeing & Calico Printing) Any substance, as alum or copperas, which, having a twofold attraction for organic fibers and coloring matter, serves as a bond of union, and thus gives fixity to, or bites in, the dyes.
(Gilding) Any sticky matter by which the gold leaf is made to adhere.
Mordant \Mor"dant\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Mordanted; p. pr. & vb. n. Mordanting.] To subject to the action of, or imbue with, a mordant; as, to mordant goods for dyeing.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
late 15c., "caustic" (of words, speech), from Middle French mordant, literally "biting," present participle of mordre "to bite," from Latin mordere "to bite, bite into; nip, sting;" figuratively "to pain, cause hurt," perhaps from PIE root mer- (2) "to rub away, harm" (see smart (v.)). Related: Mordantly. The noun sense in dyeing is first recorded 1791; the adjective in this sense is from 1902. Related: Mordancy; mordantly.
Wiktionary
Having or showing a sharp or critical quality; biting; caustic; sarcastic; keen; severe. n. 1 Any substance used to facilitate the fixing of a dye to a fibre; usually a metallic compound which reacts with the dye using chelation. 2 Any corrosive substance used in etching. v
(context transitive English) To subject to the action of, or imbue with, a mordant.
WordNet
Wikipedia
A mordant is a substance used to set dyes on fabrics or tissue sections by forming a coordination complex with the dye which then attaches to the fabric or tissue. It may be used for dyeing fabrics, or for intensifying stains in cell or tissue preparations. The term mordant comes from the present participle of French mordre, "to bite". In the past, it was thought that a mordant helped the dye bite onto the fiber so that it would hold fast during washing. A mordant is often a polyvalent metal ion. The resulting coordination complex of dye and ion is colloidal and can be either acidic or alkaline.
A mordant is a liquid for making a dye bond to a material.
The term is also used to refer to mixed acid compounds used in metalworking processes, especially etching.
It is also another term for oil-based sizing used in gilding.
As an adjective, mordant describes something as sharp or biting (used especially about humor).
Mordant also may refer to:
- Mordant, fictional setting of novel series Mordant's Need
- Mordant, a fictional character from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995)
Usage examples of "mordant".
Other dye-stuffs, such as fustic, Persian berries and Alizarine yellow, are best dyed on a basic chrome mordant, which is effected when tartar or oxalic acid is the assistant mordant used, or when some other form of chrome compound than bichrome is employed.
Carlyle worked more in the manner of an etcher, the mordant acid eating deep into the plate.
The man in question was Arthur Mordant, and, at this moment, Okey was eyeing Mordant, along with the bank.
While Klebbert guided Mordant into a waiting automobile, an old model but of expensive make, Okey listened attentively to the comments of the bone fide salesmen who sat in the line of hotel chairs.
THE drummers were still chatting about old Mordant, but Okey was no longer a listener.
In checking on Mordant, The Shadow learned something that Okey Shurn had found out, a week before: that Mordant had been visited prior to the bank robbery, by a physician named Dr.
Such an anosmic filter would be both a mordant political statement and a genuine boon to Mankind.
I thought frantically, and then I was instantly disabused of that notion as I saw Mordant himself, same size as before, descend screeching toward the giant drabit.
It is obvious that those which, like Magenta or Saffranine, have a strong affinity for the wool fibre must be dyed differently from those which, like Alizarine and Gambine, have no direct affinity for the wool fibre, and, further, which require the aid of mordants before they can be dyed, and on the character of which mordants the colour that is fixed on the fibre depends.
Other dye-stuffs, such as fustic, Persian berries and Alizarine yellow, are best dyed on a basic chrome mordant, which is effected when tartar or oxalic acid is the assistant mordant used, or when some other form of chrome compound than bichrome is employed.
For dyeing with the Alizarine colours, using chrome fluoride as the mordant, it can be applied with fair success.
Working as he does with dye-stuffs of unknown colouring power, which may vary from time to time with every fresh batch of material, it is evident that, although the same quantities may be used at all times, at one time a deeper shade may be obtained than at another, and as it is impossible to see what is going to be the result, and if by mischance the shade does not come deep enough it cannot well be rectified by adding a quantity of dye-wood to the bath, because the mordant in the latter will prevent the colouring matter from being properly extracted, and only a part of that which is extracted is fixed on the wool, the rest being thrown away in the dye-bath, and partly on the particles of wood themselves, when logwood, camwood, etc.
In addition to water and fuel, the dyers needed copper vats for preparing dyebaths, wooden vats for dyeing the fabric, furnaces for heating the water and boiling the dyes, hooks, rods, barrows and winches to move the fabric around, tools for grinding the dyestuffs, the dyestuffs themselves, mordants, and a building large enough to use and store it all.
Dyes and mordants were generally used at near boiling temperatures, filling the dyehouse with steam and fumes.
In pursuance of this plan nothing is said of the composition and properties of the various dyes, mordants, chemicals, etc.