From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpolyethylenepol‧y‧eth‧y‧lene /ˌpɒliˈeθəliːn $ ˌpɑː-/ noun [uncountable] American EnglishHCP a strong light plastic used to make bags, sheets for covering food, small containers etc SYN polythene British English
Examples from the Corpus
polyethylene• The engineer pulled a polyethylene bag from his drawer.• The chamber consisted of a 0.6-m-high polyethylene cover attached to the top of a 0.76-m-deep and 0.45-m-wide soil container.• Measured values at present indicate that the chain modulus of polyethylene is certainly higher than 280 GPa.• Install a layer of tarpaper or polyethylene plastic before installing the new boards.• In branched polymers such as the older, high-pressure, polyethylene the molecular-weight between side chains is relevant.• Peter Haddon of Granta thinks one of the small polyethylene kayaks would be comparable.• The term polyethylene glycol may be encountered in some formulations.• Meanwhile, the City of Phoenix has switched to polyethylene in its water system. 