Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A general name for the nitrates of cellulose, prepared by digesting cotton or other form of cellulose in nitric acid, or preferably in a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acids.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- See under
gun .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
nitrocellulose
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a nitric acid ester; used in lacquers and explosives
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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The gunpowder is composed of carbon and other substances, making it highly combustible; and the guncotton is another combustible preparation.
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I need not trouble you now with the way it is prepared; it is called guncotton (6).
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Such terrible explosives as trinitrotoluene occasionally mentioned in the published war reports, as well as many others, have as the principal agent of destructive force guncotton, which is ordinary raw cotton or cellulose treated with nitric or sulphuric acid, though there are, of course, other chemicals used in compounding the various forms of deadly explosives.
Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights Kelly Miller 1901
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The reason for the replacement is that IMX-101 is even more stable than TNT, which when invented was hailed as famously insensitive to shock and other conditions which would reliably detonate other high explosives of the day such as guncotton and nitroglycerine.
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However it is essentially the same material as guncotton (!) and it is now illegal to supply this, either in spectacle frames (or in films either).
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There is a guncotton thud, some far-off shift or heave that is also a local sensation, a hollow body sound.
Underworld Don Delillo 2008
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There is a guncotton thud, some far-off shift or heave that is also a local sensation, a hollow body sound.
Underworld Don Delillo 2008
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There is a guncotton thud, some far-off shift or heave that is also a local sensation, a hollow body sound.
Underworld Don Delillo 2008
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But it would be easy to make some guncotton, or even ordinary powder, as we have azotic acid, saltpeter, sulphur, and coal.
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In default of fulminate, he could easily obtain a substance similar to guncotton, since he had azotic acid at his disposal.
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