vulcanize

vulcanize

English

WOTD – 24 February 2012

Alternative forms

Etymology

    From Vulcan + -ize.

    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)

    1. (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.
    2. (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

    Translations

    See also

    Galician

    Verb

    vulcanize

    1. (reintegrationist norm) inflection of vulcanizar:
      1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
      2. third-person singular imperative

    Portuguese

    Verb

    vulcanize

    1. inflection of vulcanizar:
      1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
      2. third-person singular imperative