castor oil


noun
  1. a colorless to pale yellow, viscid liquid, usually obtained from the castor bean by a pressing process: used as a lubricant, in the manufacture of certain soaps and creams, and in medicine chiefly as a cathartic.

Origin of castor oil

1
1740–50; castor (perhaps variant spelling of caster) + oil; perhaps so called because of its purgative effect

Words Nearby castor oil

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How to use castor oil in a sentence

  • In some inland districts beans of the castor oil plant, which grows in great abundance, are a lucrative article of trade.

  • This is, if I recollect right, the castor-oil plant, and here are some of the castor-oil beans which Master Tommy has been eating.

    Masterman Ready | Captain Frederick Marryat

British Dictionary definitions for castor oil

castor oil

noun
  1. a colourless or yellow glutinous oil obtained from the seeds of the castor-oil plant and used as a fine lubricant and as a cathartic

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012