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Venetian ceruse

Venetian ceruse noun: a form of ceruse variously claimed to be pure white lead, equal parts white lead and barium sulfate, or white lead mixed with water and vinegar, used to whiten skin and dry sores before it was recognized to cause lead poisoning.

venetian ceruse: a form of ceruse variously claimed to be pure white lead, equal parts white lead and barium...
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Noun

Venetian ceruse (uncountable)

  1. (historical) A form of ceruse variously claimed to be pure white lead, equal parts white lead and barium sulfate, or white lead mixed with water and vinegar, used to whiten skin and dry sores before it was recognized to cause lead poisoning.
    Synonyms:
    Venetian white, spirits of Saturn

Synonyms of Venetian ceruse

Origin of Venetian ceruse

From its supposed origin in Venice.

Questions about Venetian ceruse

What does Venetian ceruse mean?
Venetian ceruse means a form of ceruse variously claimed to be pure white lead, equal parts white lead and barium sulfate, or white lead mixed with water and vinegar, used to whiten skin and dry sores before it was recognized to cause lead poisoning.
What part of speech is Venetian ceruse?
Venetian ceruse is a noun.

Words near Venetian ceruse in the dictionary

  1. Venetian Albania
  2. Venetian blind
  3. Venetian blinds
  4. Venetian blue
  5. Venetian blues
  6. Venetian ceruse
  7. Venetian cloth
  8. Venetian cloths
  9. Venetian glass
  10. Venetian red
  11. Venetian reds

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Venetian ceruse (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: “Venetian ceruse.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/venetian_ceruse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.