BITUMEN • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Bitumen

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/bˌɪtˈumən/ /bˌaɪtˈumən/ Listen

noun

Bitumen n.

Mineral pitch; a black, tarry substance, burning with a bright flame; Jew's pitch. It occurs as an abundant natural product in many places, as on the shores of the Dead and Caspian Seas. It is used in cements, in the construction of pavements, etc. See Asphalt.

By extension, any one of the natural hydrocarbons, including the hard, solid, brittle varieties called asphalt, the semisolid maltha and mineral tars, the oily petroleums, and even the light, volatile naphthas.

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Etymology of 'Bitumen'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Bitumen" Quotes from Famous Books

... a fine green take green and mix it with bitumen and you will make the shadows darker. Then, for lighter [shades] green with yellow ochre, and for still lighter green with yellow, and for the high lights pure yellow; then mix green and turmeric together and glaze every thing with it. To make a fine red take ...

— The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, Complete • Leonardo Da Vinci

... uncovered. Both men and women wear their hair, which is of a yellowish color, loose and long, gathering it up behind the head." Their canoes are "very neatly and well made, sewed together with cord, and finished with a white or orange-colored bitumen, in place of pitch. They are very light, and the natives sail in them with their lateen sails made of palm-mats, with so much swiftness against the wind or with a side wind that it is a thing to marvel at." The ...

— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803, Volume II, 1521-1569 • Emma Helen Blair

... The whole space between Charles Street and Tottenham Court Road is occupied by 12 different specimens, which are completed in the following order, commencing at Charles Street: viz.—40 feet of Robinson's Parisian bitumen—24 feet laid in straight courses, and 16 feet diagonally; 74 feet of parish stone paving, 54 feet of which is laid in straight courses, the stones 9 inches deep, and the interstices filled up with Claridge's asphalte; the remaining 20 feet consisting of stones ...

— Gossip in the First Decade of Victoria's Reign • John Ashton

... It is situated in a country much impregnated with sulphur and other inflammable matters. The top of the hill is covered with dry clay, in which are numerous basins full of warmish water mixed with mud and bitumen. From these small craters bubbles of gas arise from time to time; but at long intervals they become much more active, and throw up jets of wet mud to the height of nearly two hundred feet. This ...

— Wonders of Creation • Anonymous

... to invite the Admiral to come to visit him. As they were going away, he gave each of them a golden jewel, as each "appeared to him to deserve it." "This gold," says Dr. Chanca, "is made in very delicate sheets, like our gold leaf, because they use it for making masks and to plate upon bitumen. They also wear it on the head and for earrings and nose-rings, and therefore they beat it very thin as they only wear it for its beauty and ...

— The Life of Christopher Columbus from his own Letters and Journals • Edward Everett Hale

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