powder

• powdre (obsolete)

From Middle English poudre, pouder, pouldre, borrowed from Old French poudre, poldre, puldre, from Latin pulverem, accusative singular of Latin pulvis (“dust, powder”). compare pollen fine flour, mill dust, E. pollen. Compare polverine, pulverize.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpaʊ.də(ɹ)/

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• Rhymes: -aʊdə(ɹ)

powder (countable and uncountable, plural powders)

1. The fine particles which are the result of reducing dry substance by pounding, grinding, or triturating, or the result of decay; dust.
   • 3 February 2017, Deborah Orr writing in The Guardian, Veg crisis, what veg crisis? If we can’t have courgettes, then let us eat kale

     Let them stop fretting about vegetables denied by the weather and eat chilli powder. Just explain to them that they really shouldn’t think about spiralising it, because that doesn’t work.

   • c. 1588-1593 William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Titus Andronicus

     Grind their bones to powder small.

2. (cosmetics) A mixture of fine dry, sweet-smelling particles applied to the face or other body parts, to reduce shine or to alleviate chaffing.
   • 1912, Willa Cather, The Bohemian Girl:

     She was redolent of violet sachet powder, and had warm, soft, white hands, but she danced divinely, moving as smoothly as the tide coming in.

3. An explosive mixture used in gunnery, blasting, etc.; gunpowder.
4. (informal) Ellipsis of powder snow Light, dry, fluffy snow.
5. Ellipsis of powder blue The colour powder blue.

powder (third-person singular simple present powders, present participle powdering, simple past and past participle powdered)

1. (transitive) To reduce to fine particles; to pound, grind, or rub into a powder.
   • 25 October 2016, Bettina Elias Siegel writing in New York Times, Should the Food Industry Sneak Vegetables Into Food?

     In desperation, they dried fruits and vegetables in an old food dehydrator they had, then used their coffee grinder to powder the produce...

2. (transitive) To sprinkle with powder, or as if with powder.

   to powder one's hair

   • 23 March 2016, Seth Augenstein in Laboratory Equipment, FDA Proposes Ban on Powdered Surgical Gloves, Decades after Documenting Health Dangers

     Gloves were powdered for more than a century to allow doctors and surgeons to slip them on more easily.

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost

     A circling zone thou seest / Powdered with stars.

3. (intransitive) To use powder on the hair or skin.
   • 1778-1787, Frances Burney, The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay

     If she is grave, and reads steadily on, she dismisses me, whether I am dressed or not; but at all times she never forgets to send me away while she is powdering, with a consideration not to spoil my clothes

4. (intransitive) To turn into powder; to become powdery.
   • 1934, Edward Knight, The Clinical Journal Volume 63

     Ample evidence is brought forward to show that the higher incidence of chronic interstitial nephritis in Queensland is due to lead paint on the verandahs and railings of the houses, which powders easily during the long Australian summer.

5. (obsolete, transitive) To sprinkle with salt; to corn, as meat.

• (to reduce to fine particles): pound, grind, comminute, pulverize, triturate

• powder on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• powdre, powred, prowed

From Old French poudre.

powder

1. Alternative form of poudre

From Old French poudrer.

powder

1. Alternative form of poudren