linseed oil

linseed oil amber-colored, fatty oil extracted from the cotyledons and inner coats of the linseed. The raw oil extracted from the seeds by hydraulic pressure is pale in color and practically without taste or odor. When boiled or extracted by application of heat and pressure, it is darker and has a bitter taste and an unpleasant odor. Linseed oil has long been used as a drying oil in paints and varnish. It is also used in making linoleum, oilcloth, and certain inks.

linseed oil Oil pressed from seeds of cultivated flax (Linum usitatissimum). Because of its drying qualities, linseed is an important ingredient of oil paints and printing inks, and is used to make varnish and linoleum.

linseed oil. Oil from the seeds of flax, the commonest medium in oil painting. Many modern painters have used raw linseed oil diluted with turpentine as a medium, but the Old Masters generally preferred polymerized oil, known as ‘stand oil’, which was prepared by heating linseed oil or drying it in the sun. Linseed oil tends to turn yellow with age, but has less tendency to crack than either walnut or poppy oil.