cyanide
Americannoun
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cyanides
plural
verb (used with object)
noun
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any salt of hydrocyanic acid. Cyanides contain the ion CN – and are extremely poisonous
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another name (not in technical usage) for nitrile
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of cyanide
1820–30; cyan- 3 + -ide ( def. )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"It's a disease," said Papatiti, who was born and raised in the local Maasai community, insisting there was "no way" cyanide was involved.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
He dismisses the theory, also put forward by the KWS, that the cyanide might have come from a type of foliage, noting local livestock would have died as well.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
A 2024 report by Kenyan food safety initiative Route to Food found a farmer in Kimana area using an insecticide that had an "active ingredient" that was "a chemical compound of cyanide".
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
The chief vet of Kenya's Wildlife Service, Dr Isaac Lekolool, told us that they had found traces of cyanide in samples taken from the elephants' stomachs.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
She couldn’t send Billy out for ice cream or strawberries, since the atmosphere outside the dome was cyanide, and the nearest strawberries and ice cream were millions of light years away.
From "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut
Some carbon-containing compounds are not classified as organic, for example, carbonates and cyanides, and simple oxides, such as CO and CO2.
From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019
Opponents have particularly expressed concerns over the 57,000 tonnes of explosives, 46,500 tonnes of cyanides and 142m litres of fuel WWF estimated the company will use over the mine’s 12-year lifespan.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 27, 2018
And after the war, he used his know-how to develop pesticides - including that notorious group of nitrogen-based toxins, the cyanides.
From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2014
Other suspect factors: "Ammonia, pyridine and pyridine derivative, cyanides and sulpho-cyanides, arsenic."
From Time Magazine Archive
Huggins had found organic matter in the comets; in subsequent years cyanogen, CN, consisting of a carbon and a nitrogen atom, the molecular fragment that makes cyanides, was identified in the tails of comets.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Some 25,000 persons yearly visited the prefectural 12-chō experiment station, which within a year had distributed to farmers 7,600 cyanided fruit trees and 80 bushels of special seed rice.
From The Foundations of Japan Notes Made During Journeys Of 6,000 Miles In The Rural Districts As A Basis For A Sounder Knowledge Of The Japanese People by J.W. Robertson Scott
In some cases the crushed ore straight from the crushing mill is cyanided, in others it is simply the remains left over from the previous amalgamating process which is thus treated.
With its battery of 200 stamps and large cyaniding mills, it has a capacity for ore treatment of 20,000 tons per month.
From Mexico Its Ancient and Modern Civilisation, History, Political Conditions, Topography, Natural Resources, Industries and General Development by Martin Hume
The Phelps crowd began to set up a small crusher and cyaniding plant that had been trucked over the trails.
From Ruth Fielding In the Saddle College Girls in the Land of Gold by Alice B. Emerson
There are other chemical methods besides the cyaniding, but it is the chief.
The boys were deeply impressed as they looked down into the valley where the mining, milling, and cyaniding were going on.
From Frank Merriwell, Junior's, Golden Trail or, The Fugitive Professor by Burt L. Standish
With mercury, perhaps two or three more dollars' worth can be extracted, and another couple of dollars by cyaniding.
From The Boy With the U.S. Miners by Francis Rolt-Wheeler
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
