| 释义 |
saltpetre|sɒltˈpiːtər, -ɔː-|
Also 6–9 (now U.S.) -peter, 6 petir, -ur, 7 -ar, 6–7 peeter.
[Alteration of salpetre after salt n.1 (see sense 5 b).]
1. Potassium nitrate; = nitre n. 1 b. Chili saltpetre or cubic saltpetre: sodium nitrate.
Saltpetre is a white crystalline substance having a saline taste; it is the chief constituent of gunpowder, and is used medicinally.
1501–2Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. II. 139 For ij pund salt petir to the leich. 1528–9Rec. St. Mary at Hill 347 The tyme that the kyng caused Salte peter to be made in the said house. 1590Greene Never too late (1600) 21 Like Saltpeeter, that fiereth at the first, and yet proueth but a flash. 1612Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 209 Salt-Peeter..is of excellent use for medicine. 1669Sturmy Mariner's Mag. v. xii. 80 The Shot is driven forth..by the Air's exaltation, or Wind, caused through the Salt-Peter. 1722Phil. Trans. (abr. ed.) III. 371 The pendent Rocks were glazed with Salt Peter. 1768Boswell Corsica i. (ed. 2) 52 There are also mines of allum, and of salt-petre, in several parts of Corsica. 1837M. Donovan Dom. Econ. II. 241 On account of the property which saltpetre possesses of giving a pleasing redness to beef, it is always an ingredient in the brine with which meat is preserved. 1846Greener Sci. Gunnery 21 Gunpowder is an explosive propellant compound, consisting of saltpetre or nitre, charcoal, and sulphur. 1877[see cubic a. 1 b]. 1886Encycl. Brit. XXI. 235/2 A large quantity of saltpetre is now prepared from Chili saltpetre, the nitrate of soda.
†b. oil of saltpetre [? error for oil of petre]: petroleum. spirits of saltpetre: nitric acid. Obs.
1685Boyle Salubr. Air 95 The Spirits of Salt-peter will readily corrode silver. 1692in Capt. Smith's Seaman's Gram. ii. xxxi. 144 Fill these with good Powder dust, moistned with Oyle of Salt-Peter.
2. attrib. and Comb., as saltpetre-boiler, saltpetre-boiling, saltpetre cave, saltpetre crystal, saltpetre earth, saltpetre-maker, saltpetre work(s), saltpetre-worker; saltpetre flour (see quot.); saltpetre house, (a) a building in which saltpetre is made or stored; (b) = F. la Salpétrière, a hospital for aged and infirm women at Paris; formerly a prison for women; saltpetre-lye, ‘a liquid obtained by the treatment of saltpetre with water’ (Syd. Soc. Lex. 1897); † saltpetre man, a man appointed to find saltpetre for the manufacture of gunpowder; saltpetre paper = touch-paper; saltpetre rot, white efflorescence which forms on new or damp walls, caused by saltpetre working through to the surface; † saltpetre salt (see quot. 1683).
1580Faversham Par. Reg. (MS.), Edward Hale, a *saltpeeter boyller. 1683Pettus Fleta Min. i. 333 Some Salt-Petre Boylers (who sell the raw unpurified Earth-Petre).
Ibid. 338 A true large Instruction of the *Salt-Peter boyling.
1868Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869) 397 *Saltpeter Caves in the South.
1878Gurney Crystallogr. 7 These beautiful rods which we call *saltpetre crystals.
1601Holland Pliny I. Index, *Saltpetre earth good for plants. 1699W. Dampier Voy. II. ii. i. 8 Probably there may be Salt-Petre-Earth in other Places.
1848Knapp's Chem. Technol. I. 373 The saltpetre is obtained as a snow-white powder, consisting of fine crystalline needles—‘*saltpetre-flour’.
1683Pettus Fleta Min. i. 340 The fore-part of the *Salt-Petre House, wherein the Lee Tubs do stand. 1767Ann. Reg. 77 A woman..condemned..to be branded and confined to the saltpetre-house for nine years.
1683Pettus Fleta Min. i. 321 How the weak *Salt-Petre Lee is to be made richer and boil'd to greater profit. 1799G. Smith Laboratory I. 49 Saw-dust, boiled in saltpetre-lye.
1611Cotgr., Salpestrier, a Salt-peter-man, or *Salt-peter-maker. 1843Civ. Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. VI. 424/1 In 1627 the saltpetre-makers were authorized to take away the ground of all dove-houses, stables, lairs, or other places where cattle were kept.
1578Acts Privy Council Eng. XXVIII. 382 For chardges fo William Shill and John Tyrret, *saltpeter-men. 1589Nashe Martins Months Minde Ep. Ded., Wks. (Grosart) I. 147 That haue chosen a Saltpetre man for their foreman, and a gunne powder house..for their printing shop. 1617Middleton & Rowley Fair Quarrel i. i, They are saltpetre-men... And they bring commission, the king's power indeed. a1691Boyle Hist. Air (1692) 43 We seldom find Salt-peter in the earth, but that there is sea-salt mixed with it, which puts the salt-peter-men to a great deal of trouble to separate it.
1832Brewster Nat. Magic xiii. 320 The heat of the wire is always sufficient to kindle a piece of German fungus or *saltpetre paper.
1848Knapp's Chem. Technol. I. 351 A floccular, white, crystalline efflorescence..which is called *salt-petre rot.
1682J. Collins Salt & Fishery 126 *Salt-Petre Salt as to goodness hath no great Repute. 1683Pettus Fleta Min. i. 337 The black or grey Salt-Petre Salt, which is found (in boyling Salt-petre) below in the Kettle and slender Tub.
1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. Mortar, The finest of all kinds of Mortar for *salt-petre work, is such as is had from the ruins of old buildings in a low situation. Ibid., The common managers of the saltpetre-works.
Ibid., The *salt-petre workers in France using the Mortar of old buildings.
b. quasi-adj. Explosive.
1598E. Guilpin Skial. C 3, Tearms of quick Camphire & Salt-peeter phrases.
Hence saltˈpetreing, the formation of saltpetre rot; † saltˈpetrish, † -ˈpetrous adjs., pertaining to, of the nature of, or impregnated with, saltpetre.
1662J. Davies tr. Mandelslo's Trav. 84 Their Salt-petrous Earth. 1683Pettus Fleta Min. i. 322 The..Clay of very old Walls..where the Earth it self is Salt-Petrish. 1885Spons' Mech. Own Bk. 602 The surfaces of walls are often covered with an efflorescence of an unsightly character, formed by a process known as ‘saltpetreing’. |