From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishparaffinpar‧af‧fin /ˈpærəfɪn/ noun [uncountable] 1 British EnglishTPG a kind of oil used for heating and in lamps, made from petroleum or coal SYN kerosene American English2 (also paraffin wax British English) a soft white substance used for making candles, made from petroleum or coal
Examples from the Corpus
paraffin• After being grafted, the joints are dipped into paraffin wax for protection.• Placebo capsules contained liquid paraffin for adults and olive oil for children.• Boot leathers are usually chrome tanned then impregnated with a mixture of paraffin wax and paraffin oil.• To save paraffin we stopped having a mid-morning coffee break.• Entering his room, he lit the paraffin lamp on the table by the door and carried it over to the desk.• Why, there are much larger ripples on the surface of the water, upon which the paraffin rests.Origin paraffin (1800-1900) German Latin parum “too little” + affinis “related”; because it does not easily make compounds with other substances 