vulcanize
English
WOTD – 24 February 2012
Alternative forms
- vulcanise (non-Oxford British English)
Etymology
Etymology tree
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈvʌl.kə.naɪz/
Audio (General Australian): (file)
Verb
vulcanize (third-person singular simple present vulcanizes, present participle vulcanizing, simple past and past participle vulcanized)
- (transitive) To treat rubber with heat and (usually) sulfur to harden it and make it more durable.
- 2015 February 25, Kevin McElvaney, “Inside Indonesia's Ijen Volcano”, in The Atlantic[1], archived from the original on 6 March 2016:
- Local workers hike up the side of the mountain and down into the crater at the top to harvest its sulfur—a byproduct of the gas that escapes from the volcano’s vents and collects near the shores of an acidic lake at the crater’s center. The chemical is used in industry worldwide, from making matchsticks to vulcanizing rubber, but Ijen’s sulfur goes mostly to local factories, which use it to bleach sugar.
- (intransitive) To undergo such treatment.
- 1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 404:
- These vulcanized hearts, they only become more resistant when you ask for mercy.
- 2012, Theodore Rochow, Resinography:
- Natural rubber […] vulcanizes readily at the double bonds to give a strong cross-linked structure.
Derived terms
- devulcanize
- vulcanisation, vulcanization
- vulcanized fiber
- vulcanizer
Related terms
Translations
to harden rubber with heat
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See also
- Vulcan
- Vulcanization on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Galician
Verb
vulcanize
- (reintegrationist norm) inflection of vulcanizar:
- first/third-person singular present subjunctive
- third-person singular imperative
Portuguese
Verb
vulcanize
- inflection of vulcanizar:
- first/third-person singular present subjunctive
- third-person singular imperative