borax

plural boraxes · plural boraces

1. uncountableusuallyA white or gray/grey crystalline salt, found in nature as a mineral, with a slight alkaline taste, used as a flux, in soldering metals, making enamels, fixing colors/colours on porcelain, and as a soap, etc.

   “The best way to clean the machine is to put a pound of borax and a gallon of vinegar in the machine and run the longest, hottest cycle you have,” he says.

   2025 March 13, Jillian Tracy, “Wash your laundry problems down the drain with these 18 expert-approved products”, in CNN

2. uncountableusuallychemistryThe sodium salt of boric acid, Na₂B₄O₇, either anhydrous or with 5 or 10 molecules of water of crystallization.

   Synonyms: sodium tetraborate, mul:E285

3. attributivesometimesuncountableusuallyCheap or tawdry furniture or other works of industrial design.

   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.

   1977, Harlan Ellison, Jeffty is Five

present singular third person boraxes · participle present boraxing · participle past boraxed · past boraxed

1. transitiveTo treat with borax.