Definition of "cyclopropane" [cyclopropane]

• A highly flammable, explosive, colorless gas, C3H6, sometimes used as an anesthetic. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The word cyclopropane popped into my mind, surreal and inappropriate as a pigeon in a fish bowl."
• "Anything that hissed like the lantern in the civil defense ward or had the weird burned-cheese smell of cyclopropane residue sent me into a tailspin."
• "Reaction of styrene and ethyl diazoacetate in the presence of a small amount of a chiral Schiff base-Cu (II) complex gave optically active cyclopropane derivatives, albeit with"