petroleum ether


noun
  1. a flammable, low-boiling hydrocarbon mixture produced by the fractional distillation of petroleum, used as a solvent.

Origin of petroleum ether

1
First recorded in 1865–70

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How to use petroleum ether in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for petroleum ether

petroleum ether

noun
  1. a volatile mixture of the higher alkane hydrocarbons, obtained as a fraction of petroleum and used as a solvent

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