elephant's toothpaste
A foamy substance caused by the rapid decomposition of hydrogen peroxide using…A foamy substance caused by the rapid decomposition of hydrogen peroxide using potassium iodide as a catalyst; the outcome of a popular educational experiment in chemistry.
Meaning
1 senses(uncountable)A foamy substance caused by the rapid decomposition of hydrogen peroxide using potassium iodide as a catalyst; the outcome of a popular educational experiment in chemistry.
Origin
The foamy texture and size of the resulting mass suggest a large amount of toothpaste, asThe foamy texture and size of the resulting mass suggest a large amount of toothpaste, as might be imagined to be used by a large creature like an elephant.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Lessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.