a colourless oily liquid with a pungent odour, made from chlorine and acetaldehyde and used in preparing chloral hydrate and DDT; trichloroacetaldehyde
2. short for chloral hydrate
chloral in American English
(ˈklɔrəl)
noun
1.
a thin, oily, colorless liquid, CCl3CHO, with a pungent odor, prepared by the action of chlorine on alcohol: used in the manufacture of DDT
2.
chloral hydrate
Word origin
chloro- + alcohol
Examples of 'chloral' in a sentence
chloral
Someone had slipped a massive overdose of chloral hydrate into the bottle.