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chrome

UK/kɹəʊm/US/kɹoʊm/
nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,475 of 15,258leans written

Chrome is a bright hard metal plating used for trim. Chrome bumpers, chrome finish, polish the chrome.

It is a thin layer of chromium over steel, and it is there for looks and for rust as much as for hardness. The chrome-heavy American cars of the 1950s are what the word calls to mind first.

Definitions of chrome

  1. 1nounchromeA bright hard metal plating used for trim.B2

    “The chrome on the old motorbike gleamed in the sun.”

chrome is a plating.

Where it comes from

  1. French

    chrome

  2. English, today

    chrome

Borrowed from French chrome.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

chrome in the wild

  • An alternative method, developed in the 1800s, is chrome tanning, where chromium salts are used instead of natural tannins.

    Tanning (leather)

  • Sometimes a less expensive substitute for chrome, such as nickel, may be used for aesthetic purposes.

    Chrome plating

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.