niter
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of niter
1375–1425; late Middle English nitre < Latin nitrum < Greek nítron natron
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.
He also illustrates how a few spices can alter similar preparations in different parts of the world, comparing niter kibbeh, an Ethiopian spiced clarified butter, with Indian ghee, for example.
From Washington Post • Apr. 11, 2023
Forgetting danger, cleanliness and reason, I ventured into the yawning Stygian recesses of the inner earth, down inclined passageways whose walls were coated with the detestable slimy niter of the earth's bow els.
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
Mr. J. W. Emmert, through whom they were procured, reports that they were found in a grave 3½ feet below the surface and in earth strongly charged with niter and perhaps other preservative salts.
From Prehistoric Textile Art of Eastern United States Thirteenth Annual Report of the Beaurau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1891-1892, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896 pages 3-46 by Holmes, William Henry
This I felt was the clue, and again I looked at the floor before the fireplace where the mold and niter had taken strange forms.
From The Shunned House by Lovecraft, H. P. (Howard Phillips)
Though you wash with niter, or with much soap, those deep-dyed marks of iniquity can not be thus cleansed away.
From The Gospel Day Or, the Light of Christianity by Orr, Charles Ebert
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.