Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A colorless crystalline terpene, C10H16, occurring naturally in numerous essential oils and used in the manufacture of synthetic camphor and insecticides.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The generic name of the volatile oils or hydrocarbons having the general formula C10H16, which are isomeric or polymeric with oil of turpentine.
  • noun The commercial term for purified oil of turpentine, obtained by distilling the crude oil over quicklime to free it from resin.
  • noun Dextrocamphene (austracamphene) and levocamphene (terecamphene) are made by heating oil of turpentine, saturated with hydrochloric-acid gas, with alcoholic potash. They are crystalline and melt at 51–52° C. They rotate plane-polarized light in opposite directions. Inactive α-camphene is similar to the preceding, but it is optically inactive and melts at 47° C.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Chem.) One of a series of substances C10H16, resembling camphor, regarded as modified terpenes.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun chemistry Bicyclic monoterpene, a minor constituent of many essential oils.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[camph(or) + –ene.]

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Examples

  • Listen, Mel, I don’t have much time and I need some information about a substance called camphene.

    A Lincoln Rhyme eBook Boxed Set Jeffery Deaver 2001

  • He called this oil “kerosene”—from Keros and elaion, the Greek words, respectively, for “wax” and “oil,” altering the elaion to ene, so that his product would sound more like the familiar camphene.

    The Prize Daniel Yergin 2008

  • He called this oil “kerosene”—from Keros and elaion, the Greek words, respectively, for “wax” and “oil,” altering the elaion to ene, so that his product would sound more like the familiar camphene.

    The Prize Daniel Yergin 2008

  • For the war cut off the shipment of turpentine from the South, creating an acute shortage of camphene, the cheap illuminating oil derived from turpentine.

    The Prize Daniel Yergin 2008

  • For the war cut off the shipment of turpentine from the South, creating an acute shortage of camphene, the cheap illuminating oil derived from turpentine.

    The Prize Daniel Yergin 2008

  • I assumed that because toxaphene was illegal there was no point in considering pesticides as the source for the camphene and that it had to be from old lanterns.

    A Lincoln Rhyme eBook Boxed Set Jeffery Deaver 2001

  • They could narrow the search to old houses—because of the camphene lamp—and to ones set back from the beach itself—because of the maple and oak leaf trace.

    A Lincoln Rhyme eBook Boxed Set Jeffery Deaver 2001

  • And when I did—this morning—I found the source of the camphene.

    A Lincoln Rhyme eBook Boxed Set Jeffery Deaver 2001

  • That one bit of trace I never did find a source for: camphene.

    A Lincoln Rhyme eBook Boxed Set Jeffery Deaver 2001

  • Paint sugar yeast dirt camphene paint dirt sugar . . . yeast . . . yeast . . .

    A Lincoln Rhyme eBook Boxed Set Jeffery Deaver 2001

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