aerosol

plural aerosols

1. A mixture of fine solid particles or liquid droplets suspended in a gaseous medium.

   Examples of common aerosols are mist, fog, and smoke.

   1 more example

   The entire side of the barge chases itself inward, like the steel has become liquid and is running down a deain, and the metal turns bright as shock waves simply turn that thick layer of rust into an aerosol, blast it free from the steel borne on a wave of sound so powerful that it hurts Hiro down inside his chest and makes him feel sick.

   1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, page 386

2. An aerosol can.
3. The payload (e.g. insecticide, paint, oil, cosmetics) and propellant contained by an aerosol can.
4. natural sciencesA colloidal system in which the dispersed phase is composed of either solid or liquid particles and in which the dispersal medium is some gas, usually air.

present singular third person aerosols · US participle present aerosoling · UK participle present aerosolling · US participle past aerosoled · US past aerosoled · UK participle past aerosolled · UK past aerosolled

1. transitiveTo spray with an aerosol.

   The door entrance and space going up the steps was aerosoled just before passengers started to enter. A second spray was given after they were aboard.

   1958, Cooperative Economic Insect Report, page 727