▪ I. nitre, n.
(ˈnaɪtə(r))
Forms: 5 nytre(e; 6–7, 9 niter, (7 nither, nitour); 5– nitre.
[a. F. nitre (13th c.), ad. L. nitrum, ad. Gr. νίτρον (also λίτρον), possibly of Oriental origin: cf. Heb. nether, which in Jer. ii. 22 is rendered by νίτρον in the Sept. and nitrum in the Vulgate. See also natron.]
1. † a. Native sodium carbonate; natron. Obs. (cf. 2 a). b. Potassium nitrate; saltpetre.
| c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 60 Þese medicyns ben compound: vreyne of a ȝong man wiþ nitre [v.r. nytre]. 1491 Caxton Vitas Patr. (W. de W. 1495) i. i. 3b/2 The body is puryfyed and washyd by the Nytree, whyche is a spece of Salte puryfycatyff. 1560 Bible (Genev.) Jer. ii. 22 Though thou wash thee with nitre [Cov., etc. nitrus] and take thee muche sope, yet thine iniquitie is marked before me. 1563 T. Hill Art Gard. (1593) 165 The decoction of the meat of the Gourde, with a litle honnie and Niter, and that drunke, doth loose gently the belly. 1617 Moryson Itin. iii. 91 Bohemia abounds with..Niter, which it is death to carry out. 1626 Bacon Sylva §83 Snow and Ice especially being holpen and their cold activated by nitre. 1684 Phil. Trans. XIV. 615 When Nitre..is prescribed, that Nitre which is an ingredient of Gun-powder is not to be understood. 1704 F. Fuller Med. Gymn. (1711) 24 We know nothing in Nature that can afford Particles of..Elasticity as Nitre does. 1753 Scots Mag. Mar. 147/1 Small doses of nitre, and the mildest balsamics..relieved them. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) II. 269 After these precautions, they salt the body with nitre. 1831 Brewster Optics xxiii. 202 Nitre, or saltpetre, is an artificial substance which crystallises in six-sided prisms. 1870 Yeats Nat. Hist. Comm. 112 Brazil produces iron and nitre abundantly. |
| fig. 1633 B. Jonson Tale Tub i. iii, She's..all dried earth,..not a drop of salt, Or petre in her! All her nitre is gone. |
† c. A supposed nitrous element in the air or in plants.
Obs.| 1661 South Serm. Wks. 1823 II. 328 In the rain, it is not the bare water that fructifies, but a secret spirit or nitre descending with it. 1676 Grew Anat. Pl., Salts Pl. (1684) 262 An Essential Salt or Nitre of Plants. 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. I. s.v., Some are mighty fond of the Notion of a Volatile Nitre, which abounds in the Air. 1725 N. Robinson Th. Physick 60 Frost or Ice arises from the Nitre of the Air crystallizing the spheres of Water. 1796 H. Hunter tr. St. Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) I. 482 The nitre,..which is diffused through the Atmosphere, is the cause of it. |
d. A sediment produced during the refining of maple syrup.
| 1872 Rep. Vermont Board Agric. I. 219 The gritty sediment from maple syrup, commonly termed ‘nitre’. 1882 Ibid. VII. 65 The higher the tree is tapped the more of nitre or malate of lime is found. 1949 Highway Traveler Feb. 39/1 Strainers..through which the hot syrup is passed to remove the ‘nitre’, or ‘sugar sand’, a fine gritty substance, before it is canned. |
2. Used allusively:
a. In sense 1 a. in echoes of
Jer. ii. 22, where it is used to render
Heb. nether.
| 1587 in Marprelate Controv. (Arb.) 61 The nitre that washeth purely, the word of the Lord, must doe it. 1612 T. Taylor Titus i. 15 Let them take much snow and nitre, yet of themselues can they neuer be cleane. 1647 Ward Simp. Cobler 34 When God shall purge this Land with Soap and Nitre, Woe be to the Crowne, woe be to the Mitre. |
b. In sense 1 b, with ref. to the use of saltpetre as an ingredient in gunpowder.
| 1649 Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. Disc. iv. §21. 130 Great flames kindled from a little spark, fallen into a heap of prepared nitre. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 937 The strong rebuff of som tumultuous cloud Instinct with Fire and Nitre. a 1700 Dryden Pythag. Philos. 96 If..clouds, with nitre pregnant, burst above. 1762 Falconer Shipwr. ii. 49 The guns were primed;..The nitre fired. 1796 Burke Let. to Noble Lord Wks. VIII. 60 To crystallize into true democratick explosive insurrectionary nitre. |
† 3. = nitrate 1.
Obs. rare.
| 1788 Phil. Trans. LXXVIII. 381 Nitrous acid, or cupreous nitre, mixed with iron filings. 1791 Ibid. LXXXI. 328 On adding to it 1/400 of a grain of nitre of mercury, the copper was rendered paler coloured. |
4. cubic nitre, sodium nitrate.
| 1782 Phil. Trans. LXXII. 336 Cubic nitre. 1801 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) Suppl. I. 367/1 Nitrat of soda. This salt was called formerly cubic nitre. 1875 Ure's Dict. Arts III. 417 Our imports of cubic nitre have been as follow. |
5. attrib. as
nitre-ball,
nitre-bed,
nitre-crystal,
nitre-flame,
nitre-heap,
nitre works, etc.;
nitre-bush, a species of
Nitraria, a genus of plants so named because first noticed near Siberian nitre-works.
| 1753 Bartlet Gentl. Farriery (1754) 35 The *nitre-balls or drink may be continued. |
| 1807 Aikin Dict. Chem. & Min. II. 159/2 In France the *nitre-beds are composed of nitrous earth from farm-yards, stables, etc. 1839 Nitrebed [see nitriary]. |
| 1887 C. A. Moloney Forestry W. Afr. 291 *Nitre Bush..Upper Guinea. |
| 1873 Leland Egypt. Sketch Bk. 180 If you will take a *nitre crystal, you will see that it consists of two pyramids joined at the base. |
| 1637 N. Whiting Albino & Bellama 111 Had I..past through *Nitre-flames, that belch forth led. |
| 1867 Bloxam Chem. 416 The *nitre-heaps, which consist of accumulations of animal and vegetable refuse with limestone, old mortar, ashes, etc. |
| 1611 Florio, *Nitraria, a Salt-peter or *Niter⁓house. |
| 1873 Thorowgood Notes Asthma (ed. 2) 51 *Nitre paper burnt in the patient's bedroom will prevent the asthmatic attack without awakening him. |
| 1601 Holland Pliny xxxi. x. II. 420 For feare it should resolve againe and melt in the *nitre pits. 1684 Phil. Trans. XIV. 612 The Nitre Pits grow full of Nitre. 1727–38 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Nitre, There were nitre-pits in Egypt, as there are salt-pits among us. |
| 1896 Daily News 9 Dec. 7/5 The *nitre ships commenced discharging to-day. |
| 1877 A. B. Edwards Up Nile vii. 178 A series of stagnant *nitre-tanks. |
| 1775 South Carolina Hist. Soc. Coll. (1858) II. 66 If he was assisted with a sufficient sum..he says he could bring the *nitre works to a great degree of perfection. |
▪ II. nitre, v. rare.
(
ˈnaɪtə(r))
[f. the n.] trans. To treat with nitric acid in the manufacture of alkali. Hence
ˈnitring vbl. n.| 1880 J. Lomas Alkali Trade 52 But all these points may be guarded in solid nitreing, by careful work. Ibid. 54 Occasionally the chambers are steamed and nitred before the admission of burner gas. |