MASTIC • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Mastic

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noun

Mastic n. (Written also mastich)

(Bot.) A low shrubby tree of the genus Pistacia (Pistacia Lentiscus), growing upon the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean, and producing a valuable resin; called also, mastic tree.

A resin exuding from the mastic tree, and obtained by incision. The best is in yellowish white, semitransparent tears, of a faint smell, and is used as an astringent and an aromatic, also as an ingredient in varnishes.

A kind of cement composed of burnt clay, litharge, and linseed oil, used for plastering walls, etc.

Barbary mastic (Bot.), the Pistachia Atlantica.

Peruvian mastic tree (Bot.), a small tree (Schinus Molle) with peppery red berries; called also pepper tree.

West Indian mastic (Bot.), a lofty tree (Bursera gummifera) full of gum resin in every part.

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Etymology of 'Mastic'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Mastic" Quotes from Famous Books

... in the arts; and the addition of linseed-oil to the materials of the varnisher and decorator may on the above evidence be assigned to it. From this time, and during many ages, the linseed-oil varnish, though composed of simpler materials (such as sandarac and mastic resin boiled in the oil), alone appears in the recipes hitherto brought ...

— On the Old Road Vol. 1 (of 2) - A Collection of Miscellaneous Essays and Articles on Art and Literature • John Ruskin

... (pp. 88, 91), and the intermediate single ones from carved corbel heads, all of the same fine material as the shafts themselves. Some of these ornaments were, when uncovered in 1840, "very skilfully restored in mastic by Mr. Hamerton, a sculptor in the ...

— Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Rochester - A Description of its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See • G. H. Palmer

... accordingly consisted but of ourselves. Having taken upon me to order the repast, and knowing that Lord Byron, for the last two days, had done nothing towards sustenance, beyond eating a few biscuits and (to appease appetite) chewing mastic, I desired that we should have a good supply of, at least, two kinds of fish. My companion, however, confined himself to lobsters, and of these finished two or three, to his own share,—interposing, sometimes, a small liqueur-glass ...

— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. III - With His Letters and Journals • Thomas Moore