fatty oil

fatty oil

n.

A nonvolatile oil of animal or plant derivation, chemically a glyceride of a fatty acid, that is not capable of distillation and that is convertible into a soap by substituting the glycerine with an alkaline base.

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oil [oil]

1. an unctuous, combustible substance that is liquid, or easily liquefiable, on warming, and is not miscible with water, but is soluble in ether. Such substances, depending on their origin, are classified as animal, mineral, or vegetable oils. Depending on their behavior on heating, they are classified as volatile or fixed. For specific oils, see under the name, as castor oil.

2. a fat that is liquid at room temperature.

essential oil volatile o.

expressed oil (fatty oil) (fixed oil) one that is not volatile, i.e., does not evaporate on warming; such oils consist of a mixture of fatty acids and their esters, and are classified as solid, semisolid, and liquid, or as drying, semidrying, and nondrying as a function of their tendency to solidify on exposure to air.

volatile oil an oil that evaporates readily; such oils occur in aromatic plants, to which they give odor and other characteristics.