zyklonhttp://www.oed.com/dictionary/zyklon_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_useZyklon, n.
First published 1986; not fully revised

Zyklonnoun

  1. 1939–
    Hydrogen cyanide adsorbed on, or released from, a carrier in the form of small tablets, used as a fumigant and formerly as a poison gas. Usually as Zyklon B.
    1. [1926
      Deutsche Gesellschaft für Schädlingsbekämpfung, m.b.H., Frankfort-on-the-Main... Zyklon... Apparatus for measuring the quantities of substances which generate poisonous gases—for instance, hydrocyanic acid.
      Official Gazette (U.S. Patent Office) 9 November 298/1]
    2. 1939
      The other type of dry cyanides, such as the zyklon products, undergo no chemical change when exposed.
      C. L. Metcalf & W. P. Flint, Destructive & Useful Insects (ed. 2) ix. 281
    3. 1944
      The application of Cyclon B (o.4 g./cc.) for 24 hrs. destroyed all insects but imparted a peculiar taste to the tobaccos.
      Chemical Abstracts vol. 38 3416
    4. 1964
      With Cyclon B they killed two and a half million at Auschwitz.
      L. Deighton, Funeral in Berlin xxxi. 169
    5. 1975
      Former SS soldiers..had functioned so anonymously in the camps that hardly anyone lived who could identify them as guards once manning machine guns or dropping Zyklon B tablets into gas chambers.
      W. Craig, Strasbourg Legacy (1976) i. 9
    6. 1977
      [He] was tried and acquitted at Nürnberg in 1948 for supplying the SS with Zykon-B gas.
      Times 8 June 9/7
    7. 1978
      Zyklon B, the powerful insecticide they have been using right along at the camp to fumigate the barracks, may be the surprisingly simple solution.
      H. Wouk, War & Remembrance xi. 111

Zyklon, n. was first published in 1986; not fully revised.

Zyklon, n. was last modified in December 2024.