brine

[ brahyn ]

noun

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.

verb (used with object)

, brined, brin·ing.

1. to treat with or steep in brine.

brine

/ 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

verb

1. tr to soak in or treat with brine

brine

/ 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.

Derived Forms

• ˈbrinish, adjective

Other Words From

• brineless adjective
• briner noun
• brinish adjective
• brinish·ness noun
• un·brined adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of brine¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of brine¹

Old English brīne ; related to Middle Dutch brīne , Old Slavonic bridŭ bitter, Sanskrit bibhrāya burnt

Example Sentences

At the salt flat, two companies pump out brine from below the surface.

From Quartz

As they had for generations, men stood in the brine, using wooden trowels to rake thick crusts of salt that formed on shallow pools of seawater, and then piled it high to dry into crystals.

From MIT Technology Review

Add the cabbage leaves and toss in the brine until well coated.

From Washington Post

Calcium, magnesium, sodium, and other salt deposits are found globally on Mars, and previous experiments suggest that brines can easily form in subpolar regions there.

From MIT Technology Review

In the past month, it has pumped an average of nearly 1,400 gallons of oil and brine a day out of a cistern it installed there.

From ProPublica

Dumping the brine from Point A into Point B is likely to cause lasting ecological damage.

From The Daily Beast

Here, people came to let an old, still-nagging wound soak in cinematic brine.

From The Daily Beast

Along with jungle rot and sea brine, menace hung in the moist air.

From The Daily Beast

I buy a farm-raised free-range turkey that I usually brine before roasting.

From The Daily Beast

The floors and steps are wet and slippery with brine and with the blood of herrings dripping down from one floor to another.

From Project Gutenberg

Rub thoroughly with strong brine, or a solution of sal ammoniac dissolved in eight times its weight of water.

From Project Gutenberg

Into one arm of the tube containing the brine I now carefully pour pure water.

From Project Gutenberg

By fixing my gaze on the ink mark on the glass I also observed that the brine in the opposing tube was rising.

From Project Gutenberg

The brine is of greater specific gravity than the pure water; the pressure of the heavier fluid forces the lighter up in the tube.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• marinade
• vinegar