▪ I. brine, n.
(braɪn)
Forms: 1 bryne, 3–4 brin, 4 briyn, 4–7 bryne, 6 bryn, (7 broyn), 4– brine.
[OE. br{yacu}ne, br{iacu}ne, corresp. to MDu. brîne fem., Du. brijn neuter, also Flem. brijne, brēne fem. Ulterior history unknown.]
1. Water saturated, or strongly impregnated, with salt; salt water.
| a 1000 ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 128 Salsugo, muria, bryne. a 1300 Cursor M. 6348 Siþen þai faand..Water bitter sum ani brin [v.r. brine, bryne]. 1382 Wyclif Jer. xvii. 6 The lond of briyn [1388 saltness]. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. iii. 39 Olde bryne atte tree and vyne a feest is. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 51 Bryne of salt, salsugo. 1544 Phaër Regim. Lyfe (1560) X ij b, Take a good quantity of bryn which is made of water and salt. 1578 Lyte Dodoens v. xxi. 578 They keepe and preserue the leaues..in brine or pickle. 1626 Bacon Sylva §790 Broyn, when it is salt enough, will bear an Egg. 1657 W. Fenner 2nd Pt. Christ's Alarm 28 God hath been laying rods in brine for thee. 1669 Phil. Trans. IV. 1063 Six Tuns of Brine yield one tun of Salt. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., There is sand found in all the Staffordshire brines after coction. a 1848 Marryat R. Reefer ix, Those were the times of large schools, rods steeped in brine (actual fact). |
2. The water of the sea; the sea. (Chiefly
poet.)
| 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas i. iii. (1641) 22/1 Such is the German Sea..and such th' Arabian Brine. 1610 Shakes. Temp. i. ii. 211 All but Mariners Plung'd in the foaming bryne. 1637 Milton Lycidas 95 On the level brine Sleek Panope with all her sisters played. 1738 C. Wesley Psalms (1765) cxlvii, While Monsters..lash the foaming Brine. 1805 Wordsw. Waggoner iii. 85 The unluckiest hulk that stems the brine. 1841 Longfellow Ballad Fr. Fleet vii, The great ships..sank like lead in the brine. |
3. = Briny tears.
poet.| 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. ii. iii. 69 Iesu Maria, what a deale of brine Hath washt thy sallow cheekes for Rosaline? 1593 ― Lucr. 796 Seasoning the earth with showres of siluer brine. 1604 Dekker Honest Wh. Wks. 1873 II. 115, I should be well seasoned, for mine eyes lye in brine. |
4. attrib. and
Comb. a. General, as
brine-bath,
brine-house,
brine-pit,
brine-spring,
brine-tub,
brine-water,
brine-well;
brine-bound,
brine-dripping,
brine-soaked,
adjs.| 1588 Shakes. Tit. A. iii. i. 129 And made a brine pit with our bitter teares. 1648 Herrick Hesper., Gt. Boast, Look in his brine-tub, and you shall find there Two stiff blew pigs-feet. c 1682 J. Collins Making of Salt 20 It is called a Brine-House, to retain store for Winter Boyling. 1774 Johnson in Boswell (1831) III. 130, I tasted the brine water, which contains much more salt than the sea water. 1817 Parl. Deb. 740 Supposed to be not a common brine spring. 1841 Penny Cycl. XX. 368/2 The Cheshire brine-springs are from twenty to forty yards in depth. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 317 The salt which was obtained by a rude process from brine pits. 1855 Singleton Virgil I. 233 Brine-dripping limbs. 1860 Piesse Lab. Chem. Wonders 33 In Cheshire there are salt beds: these produce..brine wells. 1861 Collier Hist. Eng. Lit. 419 His brine-soaked coat. 1866 Howells Venet. Life xii. 179 Brine-bound Venice. |
b. Special comb.:
brine-evaporator, an apparatus for evaporating brine so as to deposit the salt;
brine-gauge, a salinometer or salt-gauge;
brine-man, one who superintends the making of brine;
brine-pan, a shallow iron vessel in which brine is evaporated; also, a shallow pit, or basin, in which brine is evaporated by the action of the sun;
brine-pump, a pump used for removing the brine which collects at the bottom of a steamer's boilers;
brine-seeth, a salt boilery;
brine-shrimp (see
quot.);
brine-smeller, one who examines a district with a view to the discovery of beds of salt;
brine-valve, a valve in a boiler which is opened to allow the escape of water saturated with salt;
brine-worm = brine-shrimp.
| c 1682 J. Collins Making of Salt 30 A skilful *Brineman will govern and direct 3 or 4 Labourers. |
| Ibid. 19 Before it be transmitted into the shallow *Brine-Pans. |
| 1732 De Foe, etc. Tour Gt. Brit. (1769) 395 Middlewich..noted for making Salt, where are two excellent *Brine-seeths. |
| 1836 Penny Cycl. V. 343/1 The Brine-worm or *Brine-shrimp, Cancer Salinus of Linnæus..is about half an inch in length. |
| 1860 Gosse Rom. Nat. Hist. 74 At Lymington in Hampshire, the reservoirs of concentrated brine are always peopled by..a sort of shrimp..commonly known as the *brine shrimp. |
| 1878 F. Williams Midl. Railw. 558 A *‘brine smeller’..expressed his belief that mines might be opened. |
▪ II. brine, v. (
braɪn)
[f. brine n.] To treat with brine: to steep, soak, pickle, wet, suffuse with brine.
Hence
brined ppl. a.| 1552 Huloet, Bryned or layde in powder, or salte water. 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 167 Some corneth, some brineth. 1608 Merry Devil Edm. in Dodsley (1780) V. 261 I'll make the brined sea to rise at Ware. 1677 Plot Oxfordsh. 39 'Tis yearly practiced thus to brine their Fields. a 1722 Lisle Husb. (1752) 156, I had wheat brined and limed for sowing. 1822 Beddoes Bride's Trag. i. i, His cheeks with grief y-brined. c 1842 E. J. Lance Cott. Farm. 11 Two and a half bushels of Wheat to the acre, after brining and liming. 1883 Standard 3 Aug. 6/6 Hides..brined at full prices, salted at last sale's rates. |