n. A substance that is applied to fabric, wood, or other material in order to make it resistant to catching fire. Also called fire retardant.flame′-re·tar′dant adj.
flame retardant
flame retardant
[′flām ri‚tärd·ənt] (chemical engineering) A substance that can suppress, reduce, or delay the propagation of a flame through a polymer material; may be inserted chemically into the polymer molecule or blended in after polymerization.