petroleum jelly
3
3.8
- noun
- /pəˈtroʊliəm ˈdʒɛli/
:
vaselina
- Try coating your feet in petroleum jelly at night before bed, slip on some comfy socks, and let it soak in overnight while you are asleep.
- lubricants such as petroleum jelly
- dab of petroleum jelly
- layer of petroleum jelly
There's oils like petroleum Jelly, there's vegetable oils.
- There's oils like petroleum Jelly, there's vegetable oils.
Examples
-
To soothe chapped lips, many people use petroleum jelly as a protective barrier.
-
It may take a while to soak in, but petroleum jelly is a good way to restore moisture to cracked heels.
Blog text (16) -
First of all, put petroleum jelly on your fingers so that if you do get glue on them, they don't stick together.
-
Baliles has to clean and apply petroleum jelly or cream to Django's burns six times a day.
Blog text (33) -
Patients should therefore be cautioned to use petroleum jelly when using these earplugs for swimming or bathing underwater.
Academic text (1995) -
Should ants, bees, or insects be attracted to your feeder, put petroleum jelly on the hanger wire and around the feeder openings.
Academic text (1999) -
It was found that the fabricated ear plugs were water impermeable if they were coated with a layer of petroleum jelly prior to insertion.
Academic text (1995) -
I quickly put on my fur-lined balaclava, then smeared a protective layer of petroleum jelly over my exposed flesh, and pulled on my gloves and polarized sunglasses.
Fiction book (1996) -
For dry skin relief, apply petroleum jelly generously before bedtime.
-
She always keeps a jar of petroleum jelly in her bag for moisturizing her skin.
Synonyms
14
2.7
A soft, clear oily substance used on skin to protect and soften
1
8.3
A thick greasy substance from oil that protects and keeps skin soft
A soft, oily product you put on skin and on machine parts to make them move smoothly
How Solid
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from 'petroleum' (a hydrocarbon liquid) + 'jelly' (a gelatinous, semi-solid substance): a B1 learner who knows both words would infer it is a gel-like product made from petroleum. This noun+noun composition is compositional and cross-linguistically transparent (many languages use a similar logic or equivalent term), so prior exposure is not required for understanding.
Etymology
Petroleum jelly comes from oil fields, where workers found a soft, greasy 'rod wax' that they used to help heal cuts, and a chemist later cleaned it and sold it as 'Vaseline'. The name joins petroleum meaning 'oil' and jelly meaning a soft, thick substance, so it now means a soft, oily product used to protect skin or as a lubricant.