saline
[sey-leen, -lahyn]
- of, containing, or resembling common table salt; salty or saltlike: a saline solution.
- of or relating to a chemical salt, especially of sodium, potassium, magnesium, etc., as used as a cathartic.
- of or relating to a method of abortion involving injection of hypertonic saline solution into the amniotic cavity during the second trimester.
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- a sterile solution of sodium chloride used to dilute medications or for intravenous therapy.
- salty water; a salty solution.
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Origin of saline
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for saline
Contemporary Examples
A nurse at Saline Memorial Hospice, she was leaving work when her ex-boyfriend fatally shot her before turning the gun on himself.
Discouting the gross factor of swimming in that saline cesspool, there are some awesome images.
I had saline mixed with Lidocaine pumped into my face to constrict my blood vessels and numb me so I could endure the zapping.
Each subject went through this process twice, once being given a saline vial, once a vial of actual tears.
Historical Examples
The residue is of a brown color, and has a saline, bitter taste.
His were the shinbones of the saline beef; his would have been the drumsticks.
Moby Dick; or The WhaleHerman Melville
Sales and rents of saline lands, produced an income of $4,636.
A New Guide for Emigrants to the WestJ. M. Peck
Water replete with saline particles, as brine-pickle for salt meat.
The Sailor's Word-BookWilliam Henry Smyth
The walls are built of a sort of clay glittering with saline incrustations.
Great African TravellersW.H.G. Kingston
saline
- of, concerned with, consisting of, or containing common salta saline taste
- med of or relating to a saline
- of, concerned with, consisting of, or containing any chemical salt, esp a metallic salt resembling sodium chloride
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- med an isotonic solution of sodium chloride in distilled water
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Word Origin
C15: from Late Latin salīnus, from Latin sal salt
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for saline
adj.
"made of salt," c.1500, probably from a Latin word related to salinum "salt cellar" and salinae "salt pits," from sal (genitive salis) "salt" (see salt (n.)). Also in Middle English as a noun meaning "salt pit" (13c.). Saline solution attested from 1833.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
saline
(sā′lēn′, -līn′)- Of, relating to, or containing salt; salty.
- Of or relating to chemical salts.
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- A salt of magnesium or of the alkalis, used in medicine as a cathartic.
- A saline solution, especially one that is isotonic to blood.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
saline
[sā′lēn′]
- Of or containing salt.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.