borax

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See also: Borax and bórax

English

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Borax

Etymology

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From Middle English boras, from Anglo-Norman boreis, from Medieval Latin borax, baurach (borax), from Arabic بَوْرَق (bawraq), from Middle Persian bwlk' (bōrag), which yielded Persian بوره (bure).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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borax (usually uncountable, plural boraxes or boraces)

  1. A white or gray/grey crystalline salt, with a slight alkaline taste, used as a flux, in soldering metals, making enamels, fixing colors/colours on porcelain, and as a soap, etc.
  2. (inorganic chemistry) The sodium salt of boric acid, Na2B4O7, either anhydrous or with 5 or 10 molecules of water of crystallization; sodium tetraborate.
  3. (sometimes attributive) Cheap or tawdry furniture or other works of industrial design.
    • 1977, Harlan Ellison, Jeffty is Five:
      Furniture isn't made to last thirty years or longer because they took a survey and found that young homemakers like to throw their furniture out and bring in all new, color-coded borax every seven years.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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borax (third-person singular simple present boraxes, present participle boraxing, simple past and past participle boraxed)

  1. (transitive) To treat with borax.

Further reading

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Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French borax.

Noun

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borax n (uncountable)

  1. borax

Declension

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