Urethane

noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·3 syllables ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A white crystalline organic compound, ethyl-carbamate, NH₂COOC₂H₅, used in the synthesis of other organic compounds. uncountable
  2. 2
    an ester of carbamic acid wordnet
  3. 3
    Any compound consisting of this general structure. countable
  4. 4
    Polyurethane. countable, informal, uncountable

    "He doesn’t remember polishing off the bottle of slivovitz that stands empty on the scratched urethane surface of the oak-veneer tabletop, next to the wing chair."

Verb
  1. 1
    Synonym of polyurethane. transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
ethyl carbamateethyl carbamatepolyurethane

Example

More examples

"Ethyl carbamate (also called urethane) can form during the fermentation and storage of foods and beverages that naturally contain nitrogen-rich compounds such as urea, citrulline, and cyanate."

Etymology

From French uréthane, coined (1833) by Jean Baptiste Dumas.

Related phrases

ethyl urethane

More for "urethane"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.