I. ˈziŋk noun
( -s )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: German zink, perhaps from zinke point, barb, prong, from Old High German zinko; akin to Old High German zint point, spike, tine; from its forming jags under certain temperatures — more at tine
1. : a bluish white crystalline bivalent metallic element of low to intermediate hardness that is ductile when pure but in the commercial form is brittle at ordinary temperatures and becomes ductile on slight heating, that occurs abundantly in minerals (as sphalerite, zincite, smithsonite, willemite, and franklinite) commonly associated with lead minerals, that is usually obtained by concentrating the ores, roasting, and either sintering and reducing by heating with coal or coke, distilling and condensing the zinc, and casting the resulting liquid metal into slabs or by leaching the roasted concentrate with dilute sulfuric acid and electrolyzing, that corrodes in moist but not dry air at ordinary temperature and in contact with most common structural metals corrodes sufficiently to protect them, that dissolves in dilute acids to give zinc salts and hydrogen and in hot solutions of sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide to give zincates and hydrogen, that is used chiefly as a protective coating for iron and steel, as rolled sheets and strips for roofing and other building purposes, dry batteries, and photoengravers' and printing plates, and in alloys especially for die-casting, and that is a trace element in plant and animal metabolism — symbol Zn ; see brass , galvanized iron , mossy zinc , spelter , zinc dust , zinc oxide ; element table
2. : a purplish gray that is lighter and slightly bluer than crane, bluer and paler than dove gray or granite, and bluer than cinder gray — called also cloud gray, gray dawn
II. transitive verb
( zinced or zincked ; zinced or zincked ; zincing or zincking ; zincs )
: to treat or coat with zinc : galvanize