Thursday, July 5, 2007

Handy for sportswriters and cabinet makers -- shellac

shellac (shuh-LAK) verb tr.
1. To coat or treat with varnish. 2. To defeat easily or decisively. 3. To strike repeatedly; batter.

noun
1. Purified lac (a resinous substance secreted by the female of the lac insect) in the form of thin sheets. 2. Varnish made by dissolving this material in alcohol or other solvent. 3. A phonograph record made of this substance, played at 78 rpm.

[From shell + lac (translation of French laque en ecailles: lac in thin plates).] "The wife and daughter-in-law have grown exceptionally shellaced over the bitching and moaning about my old clunker."
-- Ron Meyer; Computer Has Whirred Its Last; Benton Courier (Arkansas); May 13, 2005.

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