formic acid

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English

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Noun

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formic acid (uncountable)

  1. (organic chemistry) The simplest carboxylic acid, HCOOH, a colourless, corrosive liquid with a sharp odour systematically known as methanoic acid; it is present in the stings of ants, bees and nettles, and is prepared industrially by the oxidation of methanol or formaldehyde; it has some industrial uses, and its esters, the formates are used in perfumes.
    • 1941, Ogden Nash, “The Ant”, in The Face is Familiar: The Selected Verse of Ogden Nash, reprint edition, Garden City, N.Y.: Garden City Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 224:
      The ant has made himself illustrious / Through constant industry industrious. / So what? / Would you be calm and placid / If you were full of formic acid?

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