nitrous

nitrous, a.
  (ˈnaɪtrəs)
  [ad. L. nitrōsus: see nitre n. and -ous, and cf. F. nitreux.]
  1. a. Having the nature or qualities of nitre; impregnated with nitre.

1601 Holland Pliny I. 386 Forasmuch as Date trees delight in a salt and nitrous soile. 1657 S. Purchas Pol. Flying-Ins. 142 This falls out for want of a nitrous, and thereby a nutritive quality in the grain. 1692 Ray Disc. 142 The Air being..as much rarified, would contain but few nitrous Particles. 1748 Anson's Voy. i. vi. (ed. 4) 95 The land being generally of a nitrous and saline nature. 1774 J. Bryant Mythol. I. 30 Hot streams either of water or bitumen: or else salt, and nitrous pools. 1884 A. Brassey in Good Wds. June 403/1 The temple..submerged in the nitrous waters of the river.

  b. Mixed or impregnated with nitre so as to form an explosive compound. Also fig.

1667 Milton P.L. iv. 815 As when a spark Lights on a heap of nitrous Powder. 1714 Gay Trivia iii. 383 The nitrous Store is laid, the smutty Train With running blaze awakes the barrell'd Grain. 1742 Young Nt. Th. ix. 202 Sudden, as the spark From smitten steel; from nitrous grain, the blaze. 1806 J. Grahame Birds Scot. iii. 84 The leaden bolt Slung from the mimic lightning's nitrous wing.

  † c. As an epithet applied to the air, on the supposition that it was charged with particles of nitre. (Cf. nitre n. 1 c.) Obs.

1670 Clarke Nat. Hist. Nitre 36 The nitrous Air receiv'd into the Lungs. 1720 Welton Suffer. Son of God I. xiii. 342 My Blood requires the Nitrous Air, to preserve Life by the Respiration of my Breath. 1735 Somerville Chase i. 165 The nitrous Air, and purifying Breeze. 1784 Cowper Task iii. 32 The nitrous air Feeds a blue flame, and makes a cheerful hearth.

  d. Performed by means of nitre.

1800 Med. Jrnl. III. 429 My letter to Dr. Duncan, respecting nitrous fumigation.

  2. In special applications: a. nitrous salt, a salt containing nitre.

1662 R. Mathew Unl. Alch. 20 Thy Salt doth also consist of three sorts, a fixed Salt, and a Nitrous, and a Volatil. 1718 Quincy Compl. Disp. 113 For that reason it abounds with a nitrous Salt. 1732 Arbuthnot Rules Diet in Aliments, etc. 277 Nitres, and those Vegetables which have nitrous Salts in them. 1814 Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. 339 The nitrous Salts are too valuable for other purposes to be used as Manures. a 1828 Pearson in Brit. Husb. (1834) I. 245 There is considerable waste in gases and ammoniacal and nitrous salt by their putrefaction.

  b. nitrous acid, an acid having nitrous properties; in later use spec. an acid (HNO₂) which contains less oxygen than nitric acid.

1676 Grew Anat. Pl., Exper. Luctation ii. (1682) 243 Upon its solution by a Nitrous Acid. 1779 Phil. Trans. LXIX. 396 Nitre is composed of two different ingredients, viz. an acid, called..the nitrous acid, and the vegetable alkali. 1804 Abernethy Surg. Obs. 139 The administration of nitrous acid, opium, and other remedies. 1849 D. Campbell Inorg. Chem. 24 Nitrous acid pure is a colourless liquid at a low temperature, but becomes green on a slight elevation of heat. 1867 Bloxam Chem. 134 The so-called nitrous acid of commerce is really nitric acid holding in solution a large proportion of nitric peroxide. 1871 Tyndall Frag. Sci. (1879) I. iv. 101 The brown fumes of nitrous acid were seen.

attrib. 1812 Sir H. Davy Chem. Philos. I. i. 113 Nitrous acid gas [is composed] of 1 of azote and 4 of oxygene. 1839 Lindley Introd. Bot. 386 Nitrous acid gas is probably as deleterious as the sulphurous and hydrochloric acid gases.

  † c. nitrous air, = next. Obs.

1775 Priestley On Air I. 109, I happened to distinguish it by the name of Nitrous air because I had procured it by means of spirit of nitre only. 1789 Phil. Trans. LXXX. 70 This salt, heated in close vessels, yields dephlogisticated nitrous air in great abundance.

  d. nitrous gas, a mixture of oxides of nitrogen, such as is obtained when most metals are acted on by nitric acid in the presence of air.

1794 Pearson in Phil. Trans. LXXXIV. 389 A fresh discharge of nitrous gaz took place on adding more nitrous acid. 1800 tr. Lagrange's Chem. I. 121 The name of nitrous gas is given to that aeriform fluid which is disengaged by the action of iron, copper, silver, and mercury on the nitric acid. 1837 M. Donovan Dom. Econ. II. 227 Nitrous gas strongly resists putrefaction;..and after nitrous gas, carbonic acid gas is next in preservative power. 1880 Jrnl. Soc. Arts 445 Nitrous gas is passed through a solution of diphenylamine in acetic acid.

  e. nitrous oxide, a colourless gas (nitrogen protoxide, N₂O), with a faint odour and sweetish taste, which when inhaled produces exhilaration (hence called laughing gas) or anæsthesia.

1800 Sir H. Davy Res. Nitrous Oxide 95 The nitrous oxide may be analised, either by charcoal or hydrogene. 1836–41 Brande Man. Chem. (ed. 5) 410 Nitrous oxide supports combustion, and a taper introduced into it has its flame much augmented. 1878 Meredith Teeth 205 The..use of nitrous oxide for certain bodily complaints.

attrib. 1840 Penny Cycl. XVI. 244/1 Nitrous oxide gas is composed of one volume of oxygen and two volumes of azote. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 1530/1 Nitrous-oxide Apparatus. 1892 Syd. Soc. Lex., Nitrous oxide water, a solution..of five volumes of nitrous oxide in one of water.

  f. nitrous ether, nitric ether (nitric 1 c).

1811 [see nitric 1 c]. 1860 Knight's Eng. Cycl., Arts & Sci. III. 980 Nitrous ether, dissolved in alcohol, is the sweet spirit of nitre of pharmacy. 1879 Allen Comm. Org. Anal. I. 153 Spirit of nitrous ether has often a great tendency to become acid. This may be due to the decomposition of nitrous ether.

  g. nitrous vitriol, a solution of oxides of nitrogen in sulphuric acid produced in the Gay-Lussac tower in the lead-chamber process.

1879 Chem. News 30 May 237/2 In a paper about to be published, I [sc. G. Lunge] have proved that denitration by hot water or steam is insufficient when the nitrous vitriol, by faulty work, contains nitric acid. 1933 W. T. Read Industr. Chem. xi. 165 A portion of the acid from the coolers is sent to the top of the cold tower. As it passes down the cold tower it picks up the oxides of nitrogen in the form of nitrosyl sulfuric acid and becomes..‘nitrous vitriol’. 1954 Kirk & Othmer Encyl. Chem. Technol. XIII. 472 The Glover tower receives the hot burner gas, and is fed at the top with the nitrous vitriol from the Gay-Lussac tower, and with 52° Bé. (65%) acid from the chambers.

Oxford English Dictionary