saline, a. and n.
(ˈseɪlaɪn, səˈlaɪn)
[ad. L. *salīnus, f. sal salt: see -ine1. Cf. F. salin, fem. -ine (17th c.), Sp., Pg., It. salino.]
A. adj.
1. a. † Composed of salt (obs.); of the nature of salt; having salt as a preponderating constituent.
| c 1450 Mirour Saluacioun 3377 Loths wif loking bakwards was turnyd til a stone Salyne. 1660 Boyle New Exp. Phys. Mech. xxii. 167 Some saline Corpuscles dispers'd through the Air. 1693 J. Edwards Author. O. & N. Test. 136 Lot's wife turn'd into a saline pillar. 1733 P. Shaw Chem. Lect. iv. (1750) 67 Under the general Head of Saline Earths may be reckoned all those that are calcined or burnt in the Fire. 1802 Playfair Illustr. Hutton. Theory 364 The water would gain admission to the saline strata. 1832 H. T. De la Beche Geol. Man. (ed. 2) 21 The saline contents of sea-water. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 124 The river contains less saline matter. |
b. Of natural waters, springs, lakes, etc.: Impregnated with salt or salts.
| 1789 in J. M. Brown Polit. Beginnings Kentucky (1889) 255 Kentucky in general appears to be a limestone soil..abounding in..saline springs, which by simple evaporation plentifully supply the country with salt. 1805 W. Saunders Min. Waters 230 A valuable property which this water possesses in common with the other bitter saline waters. 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xlix. IV. 499 Brackish waters and saline marshes. 1840 in Trans. Michigan State Agric. Soc. (1855) VI. 289 Several saline springs and deer-licks were examined in the valley and vicinity of Maskego river. 1862 Merivale Rom. Emp. liii. VII. 240 note 2, Mehadia, long celebrated for its saline baths. 1872 Jenkinson Guide Eng. Lakes (1879) 265 Medicinal springs, saline and sulphurous. |
¶ c. loosely used for salt a.1 2.
| 1812 Crabbe Tales vii. 21 With bacon, mass saline, where never lean Beneath the brown and bristly rind was seen. |
2. Like that of salt; like salt; salty.
| 1651 Biggs New Disp. ¶144 The acid saline vitriolated qualities of wine, vineger or juice of Limons. 1732 Arbuthnot Rules of Diet in Aliments, etc. 270 By this saline Quality, the Juices of Shell-Fish..are diuretick. 1774 J. Bryant Mythol. I. 33 The fountain at Selinus in Sicily was of bitter saline taste. 1857 G. Bird's Urin. Deposits (ed. 5) 78 The..saline taste of nitre. 1875 Darwin Insectiv. Pl. viii. 178 The solution was sufficiently strong to taste saline. |
3. Of or pertaining to chemical salts; of the nature of a salt.
| 1771 Encycl. Brit. II. 70/1 The chemists have not yet been able to produce a saline substance by combining earth and water together. 1790 Kerr tr. Lavoisier's Elem. Chem. 167 There is reason to believe that many of these supposable saline combinations [viz. neutral salts] are not capable of being formed. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 1085 A few have rashly offered to cut the knot, by excluding from the saline family, chloride of sodium, the patriarch of the whole. 1863 Fownes' Chem. (ed. 9) 269 The great resemblance in properties between the two classes of saline compounds, the haloid and oxy-salts. 1881 Williamson in Nature No. 618. 414 When a constitution, similar to that attributed to salts, was imagined for other compounds not saline in their character. |
4. a. Of medicines: Consisting of or based upon salts of the alkaline metals or magnesium.
| 1789 W. Buchan Dom. Med. (1790) 681 Saline Mixture. Dissolve a drachm of the salt of tartar in four ounces of boiling water. 1802 Med. Jrnl. VIII. 32 The use of saline purgatives. 1876 J. S. Bristowe Theory & Pract. Med. 241 Saline effervescents may both relieve sickness and at the same time promote urine. 1887 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 26 Mar. 678/2 Saline aperients were..useful in children of full habit. |
b. saline solution, physiological saline (see physiological a. 2 b.)
| 1833 J. Forbes et al. Cycl. Pract. Med. II. 213/2 In extreme cases, or when the practitioner is not called in till the very last stage of fever, Dr. Stevens thinks life may be occasionally saved by injecting a saline solution into the veins. We have lately adopted this saline treatment in some cases of typhous fever. 1890 F. Taylor Man. Pract. Med. 105 The intravenous injection of saline solutions has appeared to do good in some cases of profound collapse. 1932 L. N. Katz in Practitioners Libr. Med. & Surg. I. xxv. 1170 Isotonic saline solution injected subcutaneously or intravenously is valuable. 1971 A. C. Guyton Basic Human Physiol. xx. 223/2 The arterial pressure remained normal until the animals were required to drink 0·9 per cent saline solution. |
5. Of plants, † animals: Growing in or inhabiting salt plains or marshes.
| 1802 Shaw Zool. III. 119 Saline Frog. Rana Salsa... It is an inhabitant of salt marshes in some parts of Germany. 1866 Chamb. Encycl. VIII. 441/1 Saline Plants are those which require for their healthy and vigorous growth a considerable supply of chloride of sodium..and other salts. |
B. n.
1. = salina1.
| c 1450 Godstow Reg. 669 One salyne that is called a salte pitte. 1533 Bellenden Livy i. xiv. (S.T.S.) I. 79 He biggit als In þe mouth of tyber þe ciete callit hostia, And mony Salynis war edifyt about þe samyn. 1589 M. Phillips in Hakluyt Voy. 568 We came to the North side of the riuer of Panuco, where the Spanyards haue certaine Salines. 1748 Brownrigg Art Making Salt 15 The learned Doctor Shaw hath given us the most accurate description of several of these salines in the kingdom of Algiers. 1808 Ashe Trav. III. 3 It [sc. Salt River] received its name from the number of salines on its banks which impregnate its waters. 1888 Harper's Mag. Apr. 739 Its highest ridges do not rise more than the height of a man above the salines on either side. |
2. (See quots.)
| 1662 Merrett tr. Neri's Art of Glass cxvii. 173 Saline of the Levant. 1674 Blount Glossogr. (ed. 4), Saline of the Levant, is a salt extracted from the froth of the Sea, coagulated through the extreme heat of the Countrey. 1850 Ogilvie, Saline,..potash before it is calcined. 1860 Worcester (citing Loudon), Saline, a dry saline, reddish substance, obtained from the ashes of potato leaves, etc. 1895 Funk's Standard Dict., Salin, the residue obtained from the evaporation or calcination of vinasse. |
3. a. A saline purge (see A. 4 a).
| 1875 B. Meadows Clin. Observ. 71 Acids and alkalies, quinine and colchicum, rhubarb and salines, all kinds of remedies were useless. 1883 Thomson & Steele Dict. Domestic Med. & Surg. (ed. 17) 520/1 Pyretic saline. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 656 Free purgation with salines will often, as in eczema, alleviate the itching. |
b. Physiological saline (see physiological a. 2 b). Also attrib.
| 1926 S. Wright Appl. Physiol. vi. 245 If saline is injected intravenously into a normal animal, a condition of hydræmic plethora results. 1951 [see hypertonic a. 2]. 1952 E. F. Davies Illyrian Venture ix. 160 Saline injections followed, bottles hung above me, needles feeding into my arm. 1956 A. C. Guyton Textbk. Med. Physiol. xxvi. 304/2 If the sodium chloride solution is isotonic with the body fluids (that is, the injected saline has exactly the same crystalloidal osmotic activity as do both the extracellular and intracellular fluids), it does not increase or decrease the crystalloidal osmotic pressure of the extracellular fluid. 1971 Nature 11 June 344/2 Cholera can be treated by killing the bacteria with antibiotics such as tetracycline and replacing the body fluid lost through diarrhoea with saline. |