English▸ noun [mass noun]
1 a liquid made of shellac dissolved in alcohol, or of synthetic substances, that dries to form a hard protective coating for wood, metal, etc.:
shot-blasted mild steel finished in grey mottled epoxy lacquer
[count noun] canned lacquers which dry by solvent evaporation.
2 the sap of the lacquer tree used as a varnish.
▪ decorative wooden articles coated with lacquer:
[as modifier] a lacquer box.
3 British English (also hair lacquer) a solution sprayed on to a person's hair to keep it in place; hairspray:
rows of peroxide curls rigid with lacquer.
▸ verb [with object]
– ORIGIN late 16th century (denoting lac): from obsolete French lacre ‘sealing wax’, from Portuguese laca (see lac1).