from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A substance added to paints and some medicines to promote drying; a drier.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. drier, a catalyst used to promote drying.
- adj. causing or promoting drying
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- adj. Drying; causing to dry.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Drying; causing to become dry, or to dry up.
- n. In painting, any material added to an oil-paint to hasten the drying of the oil; a dryer. Siccative is more of a book-word, dryer being the term commonly used by painters.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. a substance that promotes drying (e.g., calcium oxide absorbs water and is used to remove moisture)
Questi dunque bolliti con altre sue misture gli fecero la vernice ch 'egli, e tutti pittori del mondo aveano lungamente desiderata "--" found that linseed and nut oil were the most siccative.
It is an excellent dryer in oil, and has often been used as a siccative with other colours, but it cannot safely be so employed except with the ochres, earths, and blacks in general.
In painting it follows, and adds richness and depth to, gamboge in water, and goes well into varnish; but any lead used in rendering oils siccative, browns it, and for the same reason it is useless in tints.
The ground may also advance or retard drying, because some pigments united by mixing or glazing, become either more or less siccative by their conjunction.
It is an admirable dryer, and has much the same effect as litharge in rendering oils siccative.
The direct rays of the sun are powerfully active in rendering oils and colours siccative, and were probably resorted to before dryers were -- not always wisely -- added to oils, particularly in the warm climate of Italy.
For the purpose of causing it to be more siccative, the oil was boiled with a large quantity of litharge, but by this method the white was liable to tarnish on meeting with foul air.
Like litharge, it may be employed in the preparation of drying oils, and, being a better drier than white lead, may be substituted for it in mixing with pigments which need a siccative, as the bituminous earths.
These two dryers should not be employed together, since they counteract and decompose each other, forming two new substances -- acetate of zinc, which is a bad siccative, and sulphate of lead, which is insoluble and opaque.
Sulphate of zinc, as a siccative, is less powerful than acetate of lead, but is far preferable in a chemical sense.