lacquer

plural lacquers · alternative obsolete lacker

1. countableuncountableA glossy, resinous material used as a surface coating; either a natural exudation of certain trees, or a solution of nitrocellulose in alcohol, etc.

   Cellosolves are used as solvents for lacquers, for sealing cellophane wrapping, and in hydraulic-brake fluid.

   1960, Francis E. Condon, Herbert Meislich, Introduction to Organic Chemistry, page 274

   3 more examples

   Had he deemed it "wisest, best," Mr. O'Donagough was not without the means of furnishing a splendid mansion in very showy style, and yet not leaving a single morsel of lacker, or or-molu, unpaid for.

   1840, Frances Trollope, “Practical Information Carefully Obtained, and Promptly Acted upon— […]”, in The Widow Married; […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 2

   It is a solvent for nitrocellulose and vinyl chloride-acetate resins and may function as an antiblush agent in lacquers.

   1954, Arthur K. Doolittle, The technology of solvents and plasticizers

   In place of traditional methods in which materials such as gesso, yellow ocher, powdered earth, liquid glue, and Japan tallow were used to obtain a gloss, and transparent lacquer was rubbed into the wood to protect it, materials such as artificially produced varoids and lacquer came into widespread use.

   1992, Tadashi Inumaru, Mitsukuni Yoshida, The Traditional Crafts of Japan: Wood and bamboo

   Synonyms: varnish

present singular third person lacquers · participle present lacquering · participle past lacquered · past lacquered · alternative obsolete lacker

1. To apply a lacquer to something or to give something a smooth, glossy finish.

   […] a strange woman stepped out of the nearest pillar in the Tomb. The woman had long curly red hair under a pillbox hat shaped like one of the lacquered discs where the Beldame had kept her spare monocles.

   2014, Charlie Jane Anders, The Cartography of Sudden Death