sharply caustic or sarcastic, as wit or a speaker; biting.
burning; corrosive.
having the property of fixing colors, as in dyeing.
noun
a substance used in dyeing to fix the coloring matter, especially a metallic compound, as an oxide or hydroxide, that combines with the organic dye and forms an insoluble colored compound or lake in the fiber.
an adhesive substance for binding gold or silver leaf to a surface.
an acid or other corrosive substance used in etching to eat out the lines, areas, etc.
Music. mordent.
verb (used with object)
to impregnate or treat with a mordant.
Origin of mordant
1425–75; late Middle English <Middle French, present participle of mordre to bite ≪ Latin mordēre;see -ant
Bradlee is, at times, funny, mordant, surprisingly perceptive and disturbingly naïve.
An Ordinary, Extraordinary Life|Barbara Kantrowitz|March 31, 2009|DAILY BEAST
Boil the goods in a mordant of alum and sulphate of iron, then pass them through a bath of madder.
Cooley's Cyclopdia of Practical Receipts and Collateral Information in the Arts, Manufactures, Professions, and Trades..., Sixth Edition, Volume I|Arnold Cooley
What did poor Haydon (for I have read the book) get by his mordant gift of satire and his devouring thirst for ink?
The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton|Mrs. Russell Barrington
The mordant for a full red may be acetate of alumina, of spec.
A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines|Andrew Ure
On wool, catechu yields khaki browns in single bath by using copper sulphate as the mordant.
The New Gresham Encyclopedia|Various
In this case the astringent matter plays the part of a mordant.