talcum powder
5
2.7
- noun
- /ˈtælkəm ˈpaʊdər/
:
polvo de talco
- After a bath, she applied talcum powder to keep her skin dry and fresh.
- smell like talcum powder
- sprinkle talcum powder
- scent of talcum powder
Examples
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Mrs Proudford wants to know why there is talcum powder on the table in the cabinet room.
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An ordinary tin of talcum powder.
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We record "received" for one bag of white talcum powder.
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"Well, put some talcum powder on your feet and hurry up about it."
Fiction book (1990) -
Their skin smells like talcum powder.
Fiction book (1995) -
That is a designer-scented talcum powder.
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If I could walk that way, I wouldn't need the talcum powder.
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I need some talcum powder, a spatula, and half a tub of margarine.
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I have powdered myself with talcum powder smelling of lilac.
Fiction book (1999) -
Next, he examined a faint trace of talcum powder on the inner rim of the porcelain handle of the clothes cupboard.
Academic text (1990)
Synonyms
220
1.0
A fine dry material made by crushing and grinding things for skin, medicine or cooking
7
1.0
A soft, fine powder put on a baby's skin to keep it dry and comfortable
7
5.0
A fine white powder used to keep skin dry and comfortable
A fine scented powder you put on the skin after bathing to soak up moisture and prevent irritation
A fine powder people put on their skin after bathing to feel dry and smell nice
A powder you sprinkle on your skin after a bath to keep skin dry and smell nice
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a powder made from talc used on skin' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'talcum' (a fine powder used on skin) with 'powder' (a fine dry material). This noun+noun composition follows a common compounding pattern found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Talcum powder comes from the soft mineral talc that people grind into a fine powder. Long ago, people put this fine dust on babies and on skin after washing to soak up moisture and stop rubbing, so the name now means a scented dust 'to keep skin dry' and prevent chafing.