Definitions

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

  • noun A hard, unctuous, fat- or wax-based solid, sometimes medicated, formerly applied to the skin directly or on dressings.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In ornithology, cered; having a cere.
  • noun A thick ointment composed of wax, lard, or oil, with other ingredients, applied externally for various medical purposes.
  • noun Chlorid of silver; horn-silver. See cerargyrite. Also kerate.

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

  • noun (Med.) An unctuous preparation for external application, of a consistence intermediate between that of an ointment and a plaster, so that it can be spread upon cloth without the use of heat, but does not melt when applied to the skin.

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

  • noun medicine, archaic An unctuous preparation for external application — mainly wax (or resin or spermaceti) mixed with oil, lard, and various medicinal ingredients — of a consistency between ointment and plaster, so that it can be spread upon cloth without the use of heat, but does not melt when applied to the skin.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a hard medicated paste made of lard or oil mixed with wax or resin

Etymologies

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

[Latin cērātum, from cērātus, past participle of cērāre, to cover with wax, from cēra, wax; akin to Greek kēros.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin ceratum, from cera ("wax").

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