Also creasote, kreo-, krea-. [mod. f. Gr. κρεο-, comb. form of κρέας flesh + σώξειν to save: cf. σωτήρ savior; the formation was intended to mean ‘flesh-saving’ but the Gr. for this would have been κρεο(σ)σόος.]
1. A colorless oily liquid, of complex composition, with odor like that of smoked meat, and burning taste, obtained from the distillation of wood-tar, and having powerful antiseptic properties; discovered by Reichenbach in 1832.
1835. Elliotson, in Trans. Med.-Chirurg. Soc., 235. It is now a year since I began my trials of Creosote.
1860. G. H. K., Vac. Tour, 164. The creosote distilled from the peat soon rendered the fish safe from decay.
b. Sometimes commercially applied to CARBOLIC ACID, also distinguished as coal-tar creosote.
1863–72. Watts, Dict. Chem., IV. 389. Commercial creosote often consists almost entirely of phenol, but the true creosote, obtained by the distillation of wood, is a totally different substance.
2. attrib. and Comb., as creosote-oil, -tank, creosote-like adj.; creosote-bush, plant, a Mexican shrub (Larrea mexicana, N.O. Zygophyllaceæ) having a strong smell of creosote.
1851. Mayne Reid, Scalp Hunt., xxvi. We passed … thickets of creosote bushes.
1866. Treas. Bot., 660. L[arrea] mexicana, the Creosote plant of the Americans … its strong creosote-like odour renders it so repulsive that no animal will touch it.
1889. G. Findlay, Eng. Railway, 46. Timber, into which creosote oil has been forced under pressure.
