mousse

plural mousses

1. countableuncountableAn airy pudding served chilled, particularly chocolate mousse.
2. countableuncountableA savory dish, of meat or seafood, containing gelatin.

   ham mousse

3. countableuncountableA styling cream used for hair.

   He slicked his hair back with mousse, but the cowlick still stuck up.

4. countableuncountableA stable emulsion of water and oil that is created by wave action churning the water where an oil spill occurs.

   When it washed ashore in Prince William Sound, the crude came in sticky gobs, in tar balls, in what they called mousse, crude whipped to a froth in the action of the sea.

   1994, Dana Stabenow, A Cold-Blooded Business, →ISBN, page 50

   3 more examples

   Pretreatment of oil or sea water with dispersants or demulsifiers generally inhibits laboratory mousse formation with most of the oils and petroleum products tested (Berridge et al. , 1968b; Bridie et al. , 1980a,b).

   1987, D.F. Boesch, N.N. Rabalais, Long-term Environmental Effects of Offshore Oil and Gas Development, →ISBN

   A number of investigators have shown that the starting composition of a parent oil can have a major influence on its predisposittion to form stable water-in-oil emulsions (mousse). For example, the presence of natural surfactants in the wax, resin, and asphaltene fractions of oils has been positively correlated with the tendency to form mousse.

   1993, John R. Clayton, James R. Payne, John S. Farlow, Oil Spill Dispersants: Mechanisms of Action and Laboratory Tests, →ISBN, page 21

   However, the sticky mousse clogged all of the skimmers, even the Vaydaghubsky. If all these skimmers had been on-site during the first three days of calm weather, before the oil was churned into mousse, they could have made a real difference

   2009, Elspeth Leacock, The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, →ISBN, page 37

present singular third person mousses · participle present moussing · participle past moussed · past moussed

1. transitiveTo apply mousse (styling cream).

   He moussed his hair in the morning and then washed it out at night.