seal oil
- noun
- Archaic
:
aceite de foca
- The artisan craftsman used seal oil as a lubricant for leatherworking tools.
Examples
-
We warmed those barabaras with stone lamps that burned seal oil.
Fiction book (1998) -
The fishermen used seal oil to make soap and other products.
-
And they're living in these semi subterranean houses and heating and lighting them with lamps with seal oil in them and things like that.
-
Jacobs further explains that the water casks these sailors brought to shore "were a highly treasured prize, and they were converted to store seal oil."
Academic text (2009) -
Then I started kneading flour, yeast, sugar, gull eggs, and seal oil for aladiks.
Fiction book (1998) -
In traditional Inuit recipes, seal oil is an important ingredient for cooking.
Synonyms
126
1.0
A liquid made by pressing olives used for cooking and salads
5
1.1
An oil from sesame seeds that people use to add flavor to food
3
4.8
A yellowish oil from flax seeds used in paints and to protect wood
2
7.8
A pale yellow to brown oil from whale fat that people use to light lamps
2
1.4
A pale yellow vegetable oil made from corn kernels used for cooking
1
3.2
A yellowish liquid from mustard seeds that people use for cooking and massage
1
3.2
A light yellow oil from the rapeseed plant used for cooking and as fuel or to oil machines
An oil made from whale fat used long ago for lamps and soap
A pale oil from sperm whales used long ago to light lamps and oil machines
A yellow or brown fat from shark livers used to treat leather and give vitamin A
An oil made from shark livers that people use as a health supplement and to soften leather
A fatty oil from a small sea fish used to make paints, inks, and treat leather
A fatty oil from salmon parts used to make soap and treat leather
Oil from sardines used to make soap or help machines move
A cheap oil from cod used to treat leather and in factories, not for people to eat
A yellow fatty oil from porpoises used to help machines move smoothly
Oil made from dolphins that people used long ago to make small machines work well
A yellowish oil made from beef fat used to make margarine, soap, and help machines run smoothly
A light yellow oil from rapeseed used for cooking and to help machines run
How Fatty
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun–noun compound is directly compositional: a B1 learner who knows 'seal' (the animal) and 'oil' (a lubricating liquid) will naturally infer this refers to oil obtained from seals. This literal, cross-linguistically common naming pattern makes the meaning transparent without prior exposure.
Etymology
Seal oil comes from the simple idea of oil made from a seal's fat. People boiled the fat to get the oil for lamps, food, and treating leather, so today seal oil means the oil taken from seals for these uses.