I. ˈrez ə n noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French resine, from Latin resina, from Greek rhētinē resin of the pine
1.
a. : any of various hard brittle solid to soft semisolid amorphous fusible flammable substances (as amber, copals, dammars, mastic, guaiacum) that are usually transparent or translucent and yellowish to brown in color with a characteristic luster, that are formed especially in plant secretions and are obtained as exudates of recent or fossil origin (as from tropical trees or pine or fir trees) or as extracts of plants, that contain usually resin acids and their esters and are soluble in ether and other organic solvents but not in water, that are electrical nonconductors, and that are used chiefly in varnishes, printing inks, plastics, and sizes, in medicine, and as incense
the spirit soluble resins are in general of the soft variety, while the oil soluble are usually hard — Natural Resins Handbook
— called also natural resin ; compare balsam , fossil resin , gum , gum resin , lac , mineral resin , oleoresin , pitch
b. : rosin
c. : a solid pharmaceutical preparation consisting chiefly of the resinous principles of a drug or drugs usually extracted by solvents (as by alcohol followed by precipitation with water) or by driving off the essential oil from an oleoresin
resin of jalap
resin of podophyllum
2.
a. : any of a large class of synthetic products (as alkyd resins or phenolic resins) usually of high molecular weight that have some of the physical properties of natural resins but typically are very different chemically, that may be thermoplastic or thermosetting, that are made by polymerization or condensation, and that are used chiefly as plastics or the essential ingredients of plastics, in varnishes and other coatings, in adhesives, and in ion exchange
when the resin itself is capable of being shaped into a finished article without a plasticizer, as polystyrene, the terms resin and plastic are interchangeable for that material — G.M.Kline
in industrial terminology the unfabricated material is sometimes called a resin and the fabricated article a plastic — L.F. & Mary Fieser
— called also synthetic resin ; compare ion-exchange resin , synthetic rubber
b. : any of various resinlike products made from a natural resin (as rosin) or a natural high polymer (as cellulose or rubber) by chemical modification
II. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
: to treat (as by rubbing or coating) with resin : apply resin to