brine

/braɪn/

/braɪn/

Other forms: brines; brining; brined

Water that contains salt is called brine. You can always tell when you are close to the ocean, because you can smell the brine and hear the sea gulls.

Brine is also a salty solution used to pickle or preserve foods. If you want to make pickles, you have to soak cucumbers in brine for several days or even weeks before canning them. As a verb, brine means to soak in a salty solution. If you live in the southern United States, you might brine watermelon rind and okra, which may sound strange to someone from Michigan's Upper Peninsula who's more familiar with brining eggs.

Definitions of brine

1. noun

   a strong solution of salt and water used for pickling
   type of:

   solution

   a homogeneous mixture of two or more substances; frequently (but not necessarily) a liquid solution
2. noun

   water containing salts
   synonyms: saltwater, seawater

   types:

   red tide

   seawater that is discolored by large numbers of certain dinoflagellates that produce saxitoxin

   type of:

   H2O, water

   binary compound that occurs at room temperature as a clear colorless odorless tasteless liquid; freezes into ice below 0 degrees centigrade and boils above 100 degrees centigrade; widely used as a solvent
3. verb

   soak in brine
   type of:

   douse, dowse, drench, soak, sop, souse

   cover with liquid; pour liquid onto