brine

American  

[brahyn] / braɪn /

noun

• brines
  plural

1. water saturated or strongly impregnated with salt.

2. a salt and water solution for pickling.

3. the sea or ocean.

4. the water of the sea.

5. Chemistry. any saline solution.

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verb (used with object)

• brines,
  present (3rd person singular)
• brined,
  past participle,  past
• brining
  present participle

1. to treat with or steep in brine.

brine British  

/ braɪn /

noun

1. a strong solution of salt and water, used for salting and pickling meats, etc

2. the sea or its water

3. chem

   1. a concentrated solution of sodium chloride in water

   2. any solution of a salt in water

      a potassium chloride brine

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verb

1. (tr) to soak in or treat with brine

brine Scientific  

/ brīn /

1. Water saturated with or containing large amounts of a salt, especially sodium chloride. The high salt content is usually due to evaporation or freezing.

2. The water of a sea or ocean.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• briner
  noun
• brinishness
  noun
• brineless
  adjective
• brinish
  adjective
• unbrined
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• brines
  plural

Participles

• brining
  present
• brined
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• brine
  simple
• brines
  simple
• have brined
  perfect
• has brined
  perfect
• am brining
  progressive
• are brining
  progressive
• is brining
  progressive
• have been brining
  perfect progressive
• has been brining
  perfect progressive

Past

• brined
  simple
• had brined
  perfect
• was brining
  progressive
• were brining
  progressive
• had been brining
  perfect progressive

Future

• will brine
  simple
• will have brined
  perfect
• will be brining
  progressive
• will have been brining
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of brine

First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English brȳne; cognate with Dutch brijn

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Explanation

Water that contains salt is called brine. You can always tell when you are close to the ocean, because you can smell the brine and hear the sea gulls. Brine is also a salty solution used to pickle or preserve foods. If you want to make pickles, you have to soak cucumbers in brine for several days or even weeks before canning them. As a verb, brine means to soak in a salty solution. If you live in the southern United States, you might brine watermelon rind and okra, which may sound strange to someone from Michigan's Upper Peninsula who's more familiar with brining eggs.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

brine brines brined brining

The varieties from Pemaquid Oyster Company started with a salty brine that teed up an oceanic kick of kelp.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026

Savory cocktails have become de rigueur in recent years, and if we’re willing to sip olive or oyster brine, why not try some broth in your drink?

From Slate ● Aug. 10, 2026

"We do not know if these magnesium organic compounds were contributed by brine chemistry or were simply left over from earlier impact shock processes."

From Science Daily ● Aug. 8, 2026

Controlled Thermal Resources wants to extract lithium from hot brine that will be used to power a geothermal electricity plant it plans to build.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026

Phoenix has some pretty awesome food trucks, but none where the scent of garlic mixes with the sweet brine of the ocean.

From "Clairboyance" by Kristiana Kahakauwila

Highly concentrated brines can keep phosphate dissolved in solution and can promote chemical reactions involving organic compounds and minerals that precipitate from solution.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 8, 2026

It has clocked up nearly 10,000 hours of pilot-plant operations testing the brines and is about to commission a 170 ton-a-year demonstration plant, he said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026

The kind of pickles you use also matters, as some brines lean more sweeter, while others are saltier.

From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2025

But he notes that this initial lab-based demonstration works with a synthetic brine that differs from the chemically complex brines in the real world.

From Science Magazine ● Nov. 27, 2024

The entire domestic tonnage is produced from brines pumped in Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

From The Economic Aspect of Geology by C. K. (Charles Kenneth) Leith

The chicken is brought in whole before being butchered and brined in-house.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026

Eaton uses a carefully sourced heritage breed bird that’s brined, deboned and served in butter for $35.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026

To that end, Fishwife’s products include smoked salmon brined in salt, garlic salt and brown sugar then hand-packed into cans with Sichuan chile crisps crafted in the Chinese city of Chengdu.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 20, 2023

And they preserved to enjoy salted, brined meats and seafood.

From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2023

There was roast duck and sweet, brined pork and tender, spiced lamb.

From "Huntress" by Malinda Lo

If the batteries are too damaged for that to be done, crews will discharge them through brining, during which they are submerged in a water-and-salt solution.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2025

“We took him out of the game as soon as he was brining it up to the trainers and coaches,” Baldelli said.

From Washington Times ● Sep. 30, 2023

Mr Barclay told Today he was committed to brining in Martha's rule as quickly as possible.

From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2023

“I think I’m able to connect to a lot of different genres of people just me being who I am and brining my personality to the air,” he said.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 18, 2023

To be honest, there was another reason I chose the brining and grilling method.

From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan

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