white alkali
Americannoun
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Agriculture. a whitish layer of mineral salts, especially sodium sulfate, sodium chloride, and magnesium sulfate, often occurring on top of soils where rainfall is low.
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refined soda ash.
noun
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refined sodium carbonate
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any of several mineral salts, esp sodium sulphate, sodium chloride, and magnesium sulphate, that often appear on the surface of soils as a whitish layer in dry conditions
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.
They had come out on the level plain, and before them for several miles stretched the white alkali of the Nevada Desert.
From The Pony Rider Boys in the Alkali or, Finding a Key to the Desert Maze by Patchin, Frank Gee
The famous Death Valley is a dry lake of this kind where the sun beats down on the white alkali plain till it is almost certain death to try to cross it without a guide.
From Stories of California by Sexton, Ella M.
A general laugh from the young folks greeted him, and Roy struck in with: "That's if we don't fall to the earth from the sky, and land up in a smash on the white alkali."
From The Girl Aviators on Golden Wings by Burnham, Margaret
On every side stretched the dazzling white alkali, with here and there a little dust devil dancing as if in mockery at their plight.
From The Girl Aviators on Golden Wings by Burnham, Margaret
The sun had lifted over the rim of the desert, a red disc which turned the gleaming white alkali patches to rose.
From Dangerous Days by Rinehart, Mary Roberts
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.
