What does cal in Spanish mean?

What is the meaning of the word cal in Spanish? The article explains the full meaning, pronunciation along with bilingual examples and instructions on how to use cal in Spanish.

The word cal in Spanish means lime, limescale, shut tight, unyieldingly, uncompromisingly, slaked lime, quicklime, central heating, one good and one bad. To learn more, please see the details below.

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Meaning of the word cal

lime

nombre femenino (óxido de calcio) (substance containing calcium)

(noun: Refers to person, place, thing, quality, etc.)
Mi tío me dijo que poniéndoles cal a los árboles se ahuyentan las hormigas.
My uncle told me that putting lime on trees keeps the ants away.

limescale

nombre femenino (carbonato de calcio)

(noun: Refers to person, place, thing, quality, etc.)
El vinagre sirve para limpiar las manchas de cal de la bañera.
Vinegar can be used to clean limescale in the bathtub.

shut tight

locución adverbial (totalmente cerrado)

(adverb: Describes a verb, adjective, adverb, or clause--for example, "come quickly," "very rare," "happening now," "fall down.")
Ese edificio está cerrado a cal y canto desde hace diez años.
This building has been shut tight for ten years.

unyieldingly, uncompromisingly

locución adverbial (figurado (de manera intransigente)

(adverb: Describes a verb, adjective, adverb, or clause--for example, "come quickly," "very rare," "happening now," "fall down.")
La empresa se cerró a cal y canto a las propuestas de los trabajadores.
The company dealt with proposals from the workers uncompromisingly.

slaked lime

locución nominal femenina (polvo blanco)

(noun: Refers to person, place, thing, quality, etc.)
Se le echa agua a la cal viva y obtienes cal apagada para pintar.
Water is added to quicklime to make slaked lime for painting.

quicklime

locución nominal femenina (óxido de calcio)

(noun: Refers to person, place, thing, quality, etc.)
No metas la mano en cal viva que es altamente corrosiva.
Do not stick your hand into quicklime because it is highly corrosive.

central heating

locución nominal femenina (abreviatura (calefacción central)

(noun: Refers to person, place, thing, quality, etc.)

one good and one bad

expresión (una buena otra mala) (figurative)

(expression: Prepositional phrase, adverbial phrase, or other phrase or expression--for example, "behind the times," "on your own.")
Hoy tuvimos una de cal y otra de arena; nos aprobaron el préstamo pero nos dieron solo un plazo de dos años para devolverlo.
Today we had the bitter with the sweet: they approved the loan but only gave us two years to pay it back in.

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Spanish (español), also known as Castilla, is a language of the Iberian-Romance group of the Romance languages, and the 4th most common language in the world according to Some sources, while others list it as a 2nd or 3rd most common language. It is the mother tongue of about 352 million people, and is spoken by 417 million people when adding its speakers as a language. sub (estimated in 1999). Spanish and Portuguese have very similar grammar and vocabulary; The number of similar vocabulary of these two languages is up to 89%. Spanish is the primary language of 20 countries around the world. It is estimated that the total number of speakers of Spanish is between 470 and 500 million, making it the second most widely spoken language in the world by number of native speakers.