PARAFFIN

noun see: few Date: 1838 1. a waxy crystalline flammable substance obtained especially from distillates of wood, coal, petroleum, or shale oil that is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons and is used chiefly in coating and sealing, in candles, in rubber compounding, and in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, any of various mixtures of similar hydrocarbons including mixtures that are semisolid or oily, alkane , kerosene , ~ic adjective