The Collaborative International Dictionary
minium \min"i*um\ (?; 277), n. [L. minium, an Iberian word, the Romans getting all their cinnabar from Spain; cf. Basque armine['a].] (Chem.) A heavy, brilliant red pigment, consisting of an oxide of lead, Pb3O4, obtained by exposing lead or massicot to a gentle and continued heat in the air. It is used as a cement, as a paint, and in the manufacture of flint glass. Called also red lead, lead tetroxide, lead orthoplumbate, mineral orange, mineral red, Paris red, Saturn red, and less definitively, lead oxide.
Wiktionary
n. a bright red, poisonous oxide of lead, Pb3O4, used as a pigment and in glass and ceramics
WordNet
n. a reddish oxide of lead (Pb3O4) used as a pigment in paints and in glass and ceramics [syn: minium]
Usage examples of "red lead".
Through the window and across the dock, right under his competent eye, was a ship: an untidy grey ship, mottled with red lead, noisy with riveting, dirty with an accumulation of wood-shavings, cotton-waste, and empty paint drums.