Word.ws English Dictionary

shell-lac

shell-lac is the dated form of shellac.

Meaning of shellac

Noun

shellac (countable and uncountable, plural shellacs)

  1. A processed secretion of the lac insect, Coccus lacca; used in polishes, varnishes etc.
    • But, she says, a wartime ban on recordings using shellac and vinyl kept the Walker version from being released.2002 April 29, Norman Pearlstine, “A Month Of Mondays If that doesn't give you the blues, nothing will. Norman Pearlstine ranks his favorite versions of the classic "Stormy Monday Blues"--one for...
  2. (US, informal) A beating; a thrashing.

See all 5 meanings of shellac

Forms of shell-lac

pluralshell-lacs

Questions about shell-lac

What is shell-lac the dated form of?
Shell-lac is the dated form of shellac.

Words near shell-lac in the dictionary

  1. shell stars
  2. shell steak
  3. shell steaks
  4. shell suit
  5. shell suits
  6. shell-lac
  7. shell-lacs
  8. shell-less
  9. shell-like
  10. shell-likes
  11. shell-pad

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shell-lac (page history and authors); shellac (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: “shell-lac.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shell-lac. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.