emery cloth
- noun
- /ˈɛməri klɔθ/
- Specialized
:
tela de esmeril
- Then remove the outer cover/face and be extremely careful as that spring is going to be under a lot of tension. Once you get it off, clean it off with some brake cleaner and possibly sand the shaft with some emery cloth if need be.
- pad with emery cloth
Examples
-
Before painting, make sure to smooth the edges with emery cloth.
-
You can polish metal surfaces with emery cloth for a smooth finish.
-
To restore the shine of the old toolbox, I used emery cloth to sand it down.
Synonyms
14
2.3
A strong paper with rough grains that you rub on wood or metal to make it smooth
2
8.4
A hard dark rock used to make surfaces smooth by rubbing
Paper with rough powder used to smooth and polish surfaces like metal
A hard block used to sharpen or polish metal and jewelry
A hard stone used to sharpen or grind metal tools
How Abrasive
- Specialized
14
2.3
- Specialized
- Specialized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: a cloth made with or coated in emery, so a learner who knows 'emery' (an abrasive mineral) and 'cloth' can infer it is a textile used for abrasive smoothing or polishing. This material + object compounding is a straightforward, cross-linguistically common pattern, making the sense immediately derivable for B1 learners familiar with the constituents.
Etymology
Emery cloth is cloth covered with powdered emery, a very hard rock like sandpaper, so people can rub metal to make it smooth. That's why emery cloth means a strong cloth used 'to smooth' or 'to polish' metal.