mustard gas

An oily, volatile liquid, C₄H₈Cl₂S, that is corrosive to the skin and mucous membranes and causes severe, sometimes fatal respiratory damage. It was introduced in World War I as a chemical warfare agent.

[From its smell.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

mustard gas

(Elements & Compounds) an oily liquid vesicant compound used in chemical warfare. Its vapour causes blindness and burns. Formula: (ClCH2CH2)2S

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

mus′tard gas`

an oily liquid, C₄H₈Cl₂S, used, esp. in World War I, as a chemical-warfare gas for its irritating, blinding, and poisonous properties.

[1915–20; so called from its mustardlike odor]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

mustard gas - a toxic war gas with sulfide based compounds that raises blisters and attacks the eyes and lungs; there is no known antidote

blistering agent, dichloroethyl sulfide, mustard agent, sulfur mustard

poison gas - a gas that is poisonous to breath or contact; used in chemical warfare

vesicant, vesicatory - a chemical agent that causes blistering (especially mustard gas)

Translations

ypérite

iprite

mustard gas

n (Chem) → iprite f

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

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References in periodicals archive

According to The New York Times, a Singapore-based company appeared to be the main supplier of actual chemicals, including 3,300 tons of a chemical used to make nerve gas and 950 tons of another chemical used to make mustard gas and sarin.

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After the war, from 1947-1959, the tunnel complex held the majority of the country's stock of mustard gas. In those post-war years, large quantities of lower grade mustard gas was prepared for sea dumping.

You can now go inside secret World War Two tunnels in Wales; The Rhydymwyn Valley tunnels were once a top secret network used to store chemical weapons during the war

Police now understand the contents to be mustard gas and it is believed the canisters have been in place since the site was an operational RAF base.

Mustard gas find puts 2 in hospital

The Valley Works, which now sit in the heart of a nature reserve at Rhydymwyn, near Mold, were converted into a mustard gas factory by chemical company ICI in 1939, on the orders of Winston Churchill on the outbreak of World War II.

TUNNEL VISION

The Germans used chlorine and phosgene gases early in the war, which was later met by the use of mustard gas by British and Canadian troops.

A call to arms: Michigan's WWI Production

The OPCW experts analyzed samples of mustard gas, employed in the August 2015 attack, saying that there's ground to believe that "this substance may have been produced by ISIS itself," Uzumcu told AFP.

OPCW Chief: ISIL Likely Produced Mustard Gas Used in Syria, Iraq Attacks

NEW YORK: A joint investigation by the United Nations and the global chemical weapons watchdog Wednesday found that Syrian government troops were responsible for two toxic gas attacks and that Daesh (ISIS) militants used sulfur mustard gas, according to a report seen by Reuters.

U.N. probe blames Syria govt for gas attacks

We targeted around 99 percent of ISIL's suicide cars," the commander said, adding, "But, the ISIL then attacked the government forces with mustard gas to prevent our advances."

ISIL Uses Mustard Gas to Push the Syrian Army Back

While Clapper didn't state the nature and the origin of the information he based his findings on, it is likely based on, among other things, samples collected by operatives of the German BND in the Kurdish region in northern Iraq back in October, which indicated the area had been bombarded with mustard gas. "We are under the impression that they (ISIS) would like to use chemical weapons against us (the US) ...

ISIS Planning Chemical Attack Against USA

Islamic State militants attacked Kurdish forces in Iraq with mustard gas last year, the first known use of chemical weapons in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein, a diplomat said, based on tests by the global chemical weapons watchdog.

Samples confirm Islamic State used mustard gas in Iraq -diplomat