noun
: a salt of a monocarboxylic acid (as a higher fatty acid, resin acid, naphthenic acid) and usually a bivalent or trivalent metal (as calcium, cobalt, zinc, copper, lead, aluminum) that typically is insoluble in water but soluble in benzene and that is used chiefly in lubricants or driers, in thickening, waterproofing, or flatting, or in fungicides