ciss
/sɪs/
ciss verb: to retract (from a uniform film applied to a damp, oily or nonabsorbent surface) and clump up into small droplets, or form craters.
Verb
ciss (third-person singular simple present cisses, present participle cissing, simple past and past participle cissed)
- To retract (from a uniform film applied to a damp, oily or nonabsorbent surface) and clump up into small droplets, or form craters.
- Varnish is very apt to ciss on old work, if the second coat is not applied as soon as ever the first coat is hard enough to bear varnishing.1873, Ernest Spon, Workshop Receipts, for the Use of Manufacturers, Mechanics, and Scientific Amateurs by Ernest Spon, page 83
- Varnish frequently cisses upon oil paint.1898, Walter Pearce, Painting and Decorating, page 156
Examples of ciss in a sentence
- The cause of “cissing” on an unflatted varnished surface is to be found as before stated in the high interfacial tension […]1920, Robert Selby Morrell, Armand Waele, Rubber, Resins, Paints and Varnishes, page 198:
- The raw oil tends to “ciss” when applied as a thin film, forming droplets as thought the surface were greasy.1952, Maurice Robert Mills, An Introduction to Drying Oil Technology, page 10:
- The use of silicone anti-cissing agents in particular demands extreme caution, for while small amounts can help to prevent cissing, excessive use will actually promote it.2006, Nigel Clegg, How to Paint Your Boat: Painting, Varnishing, Antifouling, Sheridan House, Inc., →ISBN, page 24:
Forms of ciss
| third-person singular present | cisses |
|---|---|
| present participle | cissing |
| past participle | cissed |
| past | cissed |
Origin of ciss
Perhaps ultimately derived in some way from Vulgar Latin *cisellum (from *caesellum, from caedō), whence e.g. French cission, ciseau and other words with senses related to cutting and separating, or perhaps from the same root as scission (“division, separating”) (Latin scissus, scindō), or even a conflation of the two as in scissor, whence sciss (“cut with scissors”).
Words that rhyme with ciss
Questions about ciss
- What does ciss mean?
- Ciss means to retract (from a uniform film applied to a damp, oily or nonabsorbent surface) and clump up into small droplets, or form craters.
- How do you use ciss in a sentence?
- The cause of “cissing” on an unflatted varnished surface is to be found as before stated in the high interfacial tension […]
- What part of speech is ciss?
- Ciss is a verb.
- How do you pronounce ciss?
- Ciss is pronounced /sɪs/.
- What is the past tense of ciss?
- The past tense of ciss is cissed.
Words near ciss in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ciss (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “ciss.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ciss. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.