asbestos
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: chemistry
geography
geology
mineralogy
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *né
Proto-Indo-European *n̥-
Proto-Hellenic *ə-
Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-)
Proto-Indo-European *(s)gʷes-der.?
Ancient Greek σβέννῡμῐ (sbénnūmĭ)
Ancient Greek σβεστός (sbestós)
Ancient Greek ἄσβεστος (ásbestos)bor.
Latin asbestosbor.
Old French abestosder.
English asbestos
From Old French abestos, from Latin asbestos, itself from Ancient Greek ἄσβεστος (ásbestos, “unquenchable, inextinguishable”), from ᾰ̓- (ă-, “not”) + σβέννῡμῐ (sbénnūmĭ, “to quench, quell”).
Inflected forms:
form: asbestoses
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: asbesti
pos: noun
tags: plural
rare
form: asbestus
pos: noun
tags: alternative
dated
form: asbestoses
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: asbestosing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: asbestosed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: asbestosed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: asbestus
pos: verb
tags: alternative
dated
Senses:
gloss: Any of several fibrous mineral forms of magnesium silicate, used for fireproofing, electrical insulation, building materials, brake linings, chemical filters, suits, fireman's gloves, etc.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: All types of asbestos are potentially carcinogenic when inhaled.
Asbestos insulation was once ubiquitous.
Consul Baker, of Antung, China, states that valuable deposits of asbestos have been found in the vicinity of Kuantien, a small town lying about 45 miles northeast of Antung.[…]There are three mines now in operation, each employing about 30 workers. These workers, however, are mostly farmers who devote only their spare time to mining and use simply hammers and chisels and gather only the asbestos which lies near the surface.
Insulation against sound and changes in external temperature is given by a thickness of asbestos on the inside of the panels.
gloss: Any of asbestos-like forms of several minerals, asbestiforms
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: The supposed material composing part of the body that is impervious to heat, or by extension other unpleasant sensations; especially hot or spicy food.
pos: noun
tags: attributive
colloquial
countable
uncountable
examples: She sipped the coffee; she always did have asbestos lips.
They were exceptionally good and were accompanied by a chili sauce that had to be eaten with great caution unless you had an asbestos tongue but was nonetheless delicious.
"Yikes!" I yelped. "This water is scalding!" Lena explained to me that she had asbestos hands. Since it was obvious that I did not have asbestos hands, I offered to dry rather than wash.
Dad plucks the steamed Chinese charcuterie out with his asbestos fingers, places it on the wooden circular chopping board and begins slicing it into bite-size pieces before returning it to the pot.
gloss: To coat or line with asbestos.
pos: verb
examples: “Be sure you have plenty of kindling before you begin. They are rather non-inflammable and well asbestosed, so to speak.”
The latter department will be asbestosed without according to the idea of Professor Swain, whose deductions are that you should wear an overcoat in summer for the reason that what will keep out the cold will keep out the heat.
Q. And you considered asbestosing the interior as part of your job, is that correct? A. That’s right.
Though respectable ladies thought him a rake,
 He red-leaded Mrs. Brown’s gutter and spout
 And asbestosed the furnace for Mrs. Stout,
 And oh, the six weeks he spent refluing
 The winter home of Mrs. Hewing!
Compound (I) (1.5 g.) and benzaldehyde (1.1 g.) were refluxed in glacial acetic acid (30-35 ml.) in presence of fused sodium acetate (2.6 g.) on an asbestosed wire gauge for 3 hr.
The other day one of the men doing the asbestosing on the acid retorts fell in a sulphuric sedimentation tank.
Alginate impressions of the “asbestosed” casts are then made and poured in plaster of paris.
He actually was inside the asbestosed box buried under a roaring fire.
CLASS Nos. 26035 and 26038 have been de-asbestosed by MC Metals, of Glasgow, ready for their move to the South Yorkshire Railway at Meadowhall.
Since low temperature is prevailing in hilly regions, tiled or asbestosed houses can be used to raise the room temperature.
Under Barroso, Commissioners were re-housed together in the new, refurbished (de-asbestosed) Berlaymont building in central Brussels.
Now Bush wondered / If the collapse of the three buildings could / Somehow be linked to an insurance scam / To win a fortune from asbestosed steel.
gloss: To expose to asbestos; to cause to suffer asbestosis.
pos: verb
examples: Lungs asbestosed / unable to breath^([sic]) / and so incapable / of producing for profit / sent away without delay / so a fresh lunged / could occupy / the vacant place.
gloss: To insulate or buffer.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
examples: Is Malcolm J. Miller’s South Carolina Sinking Fund partly immune, partly asbestosed, or what?
Whatever air’s asbestosing the prayers / Of this sparse April parlour must splutter / To dust until it dismantles itself.
Not enough if you / garlanded me before twenty, / asbestosed me several times / around the conjugal fire.
Like the house, I’d had my shiny youth of new love, my stuccoed divorce, my asbestosed fallout of pipe pain and dry-rot, my ill-conceived disco years, and my disastrous mid-life reno.
Derived words: asbestic
asbestiferous
asbestification
asbestiform
asbestify
asbestine
asbestinite
asbestise
asbestite
asbestization
asbestize
asbestoid
asbestos cement
asbestosis
asbestosization
asbestosize
asbestosless
asbestoslike
asbestous
blue asbestos
brown asbestos
common asbestos
green asbestos
nonasbestos
white asbestos
Translations: