retardant
nounEtymology Borrowed from French retardant, equivalent to retard (“to slow down”) + -ant.
1
In compounds, Often Something that serves to retard (slow down) the action of something.
- It took until last year for mattresses and furniture containing the highly toxic retardant deca-BDE to be banned, under European law, from sale. […] To make matters worse, far from saving us from fires, flame retardants appear to increase the risk.2020 February 26, George Monbiot, “Toxic sofas are a secret scandal – and an ‘EU red tape’ bonfire will make it worse”, in The Guardian:
- Derived terms
- fire retardant, flame retardant