Dictionary

celluloid en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈsɛljəˌlɔɪd/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Former trademark of Celluloid Manufacturing Company; from cellulose + -oid.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) Any of a variety of thermoplastics created from nitrocellulose and camphor, once used as photographic film.
   • 1894 June, Antonia Dickson, W. K. L. Dickson, Edison's Invention of the Kineto-Phonograph: Account of the Invention, article in Century Magazine, Volume 48, Issue 2, Then followed some experiments with drums, over which sheets of sensitized celluloid film were drawn, the edges being pressed into a narrow slot in the surface, similar in construction to the old tin-foil phonograph.
   • "And will you now, sir, take off your celluloid collar and permit me to burn it in the candle? Thank you, sir. And will you allow me to smash your spectacles for you with my hammer? Thank you." 1910, Stephen Leacock, “The Conjurer's Revenge”, in Literary Lapses:
2. (attributive, countable, figuratively, often, uncountable) The genre of cinema; film.
   • Celluloid railway comedy was hardly to appear again until the mid-thirties and, later, in Britain. 1958 February 14, David Gunston, “Railways on the Screen”, in Railway Magazine, page 88:
   • In particular, they set Kerouac and Ginsberg to the specifications of an emergent superficial form—celluloid antiheroes—attractive to those in want of adventure and who would soon be reading On the Road (1957). 2004, Preston Whaley, Blows Like a Horn, page 20:
3. (countable, obsolete, uncountable) An item, such as a jacket, made from celluloid.
   • 'What with that bearded Assyrian bull in London, and this Thug down here, who has ruined my clean celluloid, you seem to be keeping queer company, Ted Malone.' 1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed:

Forms

Coordinates

cellophane · cellulose acetate

Deriveds

celluloid ceiling · loid · celluloided

Relateds

cellulose · cellophane · Galalith · cell · cellulite · viscose · nitrocellulosic · cellulitis · cellulosic · cellule · xylonite · viscoid · cellular

Translations (26)

ja セルロイド (variety of thermoplastics) · eo celuloido (variety of thermoplastics) · th เซลลูลอยด์ (variety of thermoplastics) · fr celluloïd (variety of thermoplastics) · bg целулои́д (variety of thermoplastics) · id seluloid (variety of thermoplastics) · it celluloide (variety of thermoplastics) · pt celuloide (variety of thermoplastics) · ko 셀룰로이드 (variety of thermoplastics) · nl celluloid (variety of thermoplastics) · be цэлуло́ід (variety of thermoplastics) · io celuloido (variety of thermoplastics) · ca cel·luloide (variety of thermoplastics) · vo sälülöd (variety of thermoplastics) · de Zelluloid (variety of thermoplastics) · de Celluloid (variety of thermoplastics) · ms seluloid (variety of thermoplastics) · be цэлюлёід (variety of thermoplastics) · ru целлуло́ид (variety of thermoplastics) · cmn 賽璐珞 /赛璐珞 (variety of thermoplastics) · ka ცელულოიდი (variety of thermoplastics) · uk целуло́їд (variety of thermoplastics) · pl celuloid (variety of thermoplastics) · fr ducinéma (cinema or film) · fi selluloidi (variety of thermoplastics) · es celuloide (variety of thermoplastics)