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lac

lac is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) with 2 senses. The full text of each entry is reproduced verbatim below.

Definitions

  1. 1.One hundred thousand; also, a vaguely great number; as, a lac of rupees. [Written also lack.] [East Indies]
  2. 2.A resinous substance produced mainly on the banyan tree, but to some extent on other trees, by the Coccus lacca, a scale-shaped insect, the female of which fixes herself on the bark, and exudes from the margin of her body this resinous substance. Note: Stick-lac is the substance in its natural state, incrusting small twigs. When broken off, and the coloring matter partly removed, the granular residuum is called seed-lac. When melted, and reduced to a thin crust, it is called shell-lac or shellac. Lac is an important ingredient in sealing wax, dyes, varnishes, and lacquers. Ceylon lac, a resinous exudation of the tree Croton lacciferum, resembling lac. -- Lac dye, a scarlet dye obtained from stick-lac. -- Lac lake, the coloring matter of lac dye when precipitated from its solutions by alum. -- Mexican lac, an exudation of the tree Croton Draco.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

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