nitrify
Americanverb (used with object)
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Chemistry, Biology. to oxidize (ammonia, ammonium compounds, or free atmospheric nitrogen) to nitrites and then to nitrates, especially in soil by bacterial or other microbial action.
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Chemistry. to infuse with nitrogen or nitrogen compounds.
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Chemistry. to treat or combine with nitrogen or its compounds.
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Chemistry. (formerly) to convert into niter.
verb
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to treat or cause to react with nitrogen or a nitrogen compound
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to treat (soil) with nitrates
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(of nitrobacteria) to convert (ammonium compounds) into nitrates by oxidation
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of nitrify
First recorded in 1820–30; from French nitrifier; see nitr-, niter, -i-, -fy
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:
A thin layer of solution will nitrify sooner than a deep layer, owing to the larger proportion of oxygen available.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 470, January 3, 1885 by Various
This is the reason why strong urine solutions do not nitrify.
From Manures and the principles of manuring by Charles Morton Aikman
As found in suspension in a freshly nitrified solution, it consists largely of nearly spherical corpuscles, varying extremely in size.
From Manures and the principles of manuring by Charles Morton Aikman
As we should expect, such a manure as shoddy is very slowly nitrified.
From Manures and the principles of manuring by Charles Morton Aikman
The rate at which the nitrogen compounds in farmyard manure become nitrified, when incorporated with the soil, vary very much according to circumstances.
From Manures and the principles of manuring by Charles Morton Aikman
Sewage will be thoroughly nitrified only when a sufficient supply of calcium carbonate, or some other base, is available.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 470, January 3, 1885 by Various
A solution receiving an abundant supply of the ferment will exhibit speedy nitrification, and strong solutions may by this means be successfully nitrified, which with small seedings would prove very refractory.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 470, January 3, 1885 by Various
Called brachialactone, it reduces nitrous oxide emissions by blocking enzymatic pathways in nitrifying bacteria.
From Nature ● Sep. 18, 2013
But then nitrifying soil bacteria go to work, wreaking environmental havoc.
From Nature ● Sep. 18, 2013
The presence of earthworms increases the nitrifying powers of the soil bacteria and decreases putrifaction of the soil.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
The gypsum neutralises the alkalinity of nitrifying solutions by converting the alkaline ammonium carbonate into neutral ammonium sulphate, the calcium carbonate being precipitated.
From Manures and the principles of manuring by Charles Morton Aikman
The work of the nitrifying germs is called nitrification.
From The First Book of Farming by Charles Landon Goodrich
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.
