bromide Chem.
(ˈbrəʊmaɪd)
[f. brom-ine + -ide.]
1. a. A primary compound of bromine with an element or organic radical. Several bromides (esp. those of ammonium, iron, and potassium) are in common medicinal use.
| 1836 Penny Cycl. V. 461/1 Carbon and Bromine form a liquid bromide of carbon. 1871 B. Stewart Heat §58 The same law holds good for the Bromides..of ethyle and methyle. 1876 Harley Mat. Med. 204 Bromide of Iron acts as an energetic tonic. 1881 G. M. Beard Sea-Sickness 36 The great value of the bromides in very large doses, as harmless and powerful sedatives. |
b. familiarly for bromide of potassium (KBr).
| 1883 Harper's Mag. Jan. 241/1 A little bromide completed the relief that put her asleep. |
c. attrib.
| 1886 Fagge Princ. Med. II. 806 Bromide Rash. |
2. A dose of potassium bromide taken as a sedative.
| 1903 Smart Set IX. 14/1 I'll give you a bromide when you're ready for bed. |
3. fig. A person whose thoughts and conversation are conventional and commonplace. Also, a commonplace saying, trite remark, conventionalism; a soothing statement. slang (orig. U.S.).
| [1903 Daily Chron. 9 May 4/5 Literature is resentful at being mistaken for bromide.] 1906 G. Burgess (title) Are you a Bromide? 1909 W. Raleigh Lett. (1926) II. 340 Bromides are dull partly because everyone pretends to understand them. 1924 R. Hichens After the Verdict ii. xvii, For once Mrs. Baratrie gave way to a bromide. She said: ‘How good little Clive was!’ 1925 Contemp. Rev. Oct. 469 There is the rise of slums which ‘ought not to be in a new country’, but which, in spite of this oft-quoted bromide, certainly existed in still earlier days. 1926 Publishers' Weekly 20 Feb. 563 The old bromide that poetry never sells is once again proved to be wrong. 1950 Manch. Guardian Weekly 29 June 2/3 The Republicans would have to fall back on the old bromide about the incurable quarrelsomeness of ‘old, sick Europe’. 1961 B. Fergusson Watery Maze i. 15 These two bromides..were quoted by the faithful..until they were worn as thin as a Queen Victoria bun penny. |
4. Photogr. a. bromide developer, a developer suitable for bromide paper; bromide emulsion, a gelatine emulsion impregnated with a bromide, esp. silver bromide; bromide paper, a paper coated with gelatino-bromide emulsion, used for contact printing and enlargements; also bromide print, bromide printer, bromide printing (of or with reference to bromide paper).
| 1885 Amateur Photographer 27 Mar. 409 Britannia Bromide Paper, specially for enlargements. 1892 A. Brothers Photogr. 78 Opal glass and paper are coated with silver bromide emulsion. Ibid., Bromide-Printing Process. 1902 Bromide Monthly Jan. 10 One well-known Bromide printer we know of makes his exposures in contact printing to the light of an ordinary candle from preference. 1904 Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 71/1 Bromide Prints..are developed and fixed like dry plates. 1923 S. E. Sheppard in Photography 165 Characteristic Curves for Bromide Papers. 1971 Ann. Rep. Curators Bodl. Libr. 1969–70 46 Photography from Library material..consisted of..3,544 bromide prints. |
b. A reproduction or proof on bromide paper; a bromide print.
| 1967 F. J. M. Wijnekus Elsevier's Dict. Printing 45/2 Bromide, brief for bromide print. 1977 Economist 5 Mar. 116 Work combining original artwork, illustrations, line or screen bromides..and type matter. 1979 Times 20 Nov. 4/4 Bromides, or photographic proofs, of individual reports have to be cut and pasted up in the standard way. 1983 H. Evans Good Times, Bad Times ix. 182 The computer system..was designed to translate keystrokes..so that they emerged in the form of a photographic bromide ready for insertion. |