prussic acid
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of prussic acid
1780–90; translation of French acide prussique (equivalent to Prusse Prussia + -ique -ic ); so called because it was first obtained by heating Prussian blue with sulfuric acid
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.
In the early 1900s, buyers had to sign for drugs they bought from a chemist, but the prosecution pointed out that the signature for the prussic acid didn't match the one on Orme's letters.
From BBC
The factory had been producing acrylic glass and prussic acid.
From BBC
Other sinister details emerged: Lizzie was reportedly seen trying to buy highly poisonous prussic acid the day before the killings.
From New York Times
“I would rather give a healthy boy or a healthy girl a phial of prussic acid than this novel,” wrote the editor of the Sunday Express.
From The Guardian
We believed it was prussic acid, a worrying thought since we knew that our gas masks provided no protection against that chemical.
From The Guardian
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.
