Meaning

Any of a variety of thermoplastics created from nitrocellulose and camphor, once used as photographic film..

Definitions by Sense

1. Any of a variety of thermoplastics created from nitrocellulose and camphor, once used as photographic film.
2. (figuratively, often used attributively) The genre of cinema; film.
3. (obsolete) An item, such as a jacket, made from celluloid.

Example Sentences

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."

Celluloid railway comedy was hardly to appear again until the mid-thirties and, later, in Britain.

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).

'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.'

Word Forms

• celluloids

Synonyms for celluloid

Related Words

When Should You Use Celluloid?

Use celluloid when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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