alkaline, a.
(ˈælkəlaɪn)
Also 7 alkalin, 8 alcaline.
[? a. Fr. alcalin or mod.L. alcalīn-us: see alkali and -ine.]
1. a. Of or pertaining to alkalis; of the nature of an alkali.
| 1677 W. Harris tr. Lemery's Chym. i. ii. (1686) 322 Quicklime..being a substance very Alkalin, the acid points..enter into it with force. 1718 J. Chamberlayne Relig. Philos. II. xviii. 6 Volatile and Alcaline Salts. 1732 Arbuthnot Rules Diet 289 Acidity..is to be cured by an alkaline Diet. 1743 Lond. & Country Brewer iii. (ed. 2) 218 The alcaline Salt in the Ashes. 1794 J. Hutton Philos. Light, etc. 210 An alkaline salt saturated with fixed air. 1849 M. Somerville Connex. Phys. Sc. xxix. 340 By reversing the poles the taste becomes alkaline. 1876 Page Advd. Text-bk. Geol. iii. 70 The alkalis and alkaline carbonates attack many rocks with great facility. |
b. fig.
| 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. 402 A mediating spirit, who endeavoured, by the alkaline smoothness of her own disposition, to neutralize the acidity of theological controversy. |
† c. substantively. Obs.
| 1773 Gentlem. Mag. XLIII. 126 Alkalines cannot be attracted in waters where acids do not abound. |
2. alkaline metals: the metals whose hydroxides are alkalis, viz. potassium, sodium, cæsium, lithium, rubidium, to which is sometimes added the hypothetical ammonium. alkaline earths: the oxides of calcium, strontium, and barium, which are intermediate in properties between the alkalis and ‘earths’ proper. Hence alkaline-earthy a.
| 1806 Davy in Phil. Trans. XCVII. 21 Alkaline or alkaline-earthy bases. 1816 ― in Faraday Res. 4 A new point of analogy between the alkalies and the alkaline earths. 1849 Murchison Siluria xii. 307 The terrestrial mass contains free alkaline metals. |
3. Of soils or areas: charged or permeated with alkali. U.S.
| 1850 L. Sawyer Way Sketches (1926) 109 Great care should be taken to avoid the alkaline waters found along the route and the animals should never be picketed out upon the low alkaline bottoms. 1869 S. Bowles Our New West xiv. 277 It would seem as if these alkaline valleys of the Great Interior Basin were too cold. 1870 Amer. Naturalist IV. 29 A desert section proper and one more particularly pertaining to the alkaline flats. |