Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Water saturated with or containing large amounts of a salt, especially sodium chloride.
  • noun The water of a sea or an ocean.
  • noun A large body of salt water.
  • noun Salt water used for preserving and pickling foods.
  • transitive verb To immerse, preserve, or pickle in salt water.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To steep in brine, as corn, in order to prevent smut.
  • To mix salt with; make briny: as, to brine hay.
  • noun Water saturated or strongly impregnated with salt, like the water of the ocean; salt water.
  • noun The sea as a body of salt water; the ocean.
  • noun Tears.
  • noun The eyebrow.
  • To bring: as, to brine it hither.
  • noun In refriger., a solution of alkaline salts in water, which has a solidifying point below the temperature at which the solution is to be used.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To steep or saturate in brine.
  • transitive verb To sprinkle with salt or brine.
  • noun Water saturated or strongly impregnated with salt; pickle; hence, any strong saline solution; also, the saline residue or strong mother liquor resulting from the evaporation of natural or artificial waters.
  • noun The ocean; the water of an ocean, sea, or salt lake.
  • noun Tears; -- so called from their saltness.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a fly of the genus Ephydra, the larvæ of which live in artificial brines and in salt lakes.
  • noun an instrument for measuring the saltness of a liquid.
  • noun a pit or pan of salt water, where salt is formed by cristallization.
  • noun a salt spring or well, from which water is taken to be boiled or evaporated for making salt.
  • noun (Marine Engin.) a pump for changing the water in the boilers, so as to clear them of the brine which collects at the bottom.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a phyllopod crustacean of the genus Artemia, inhabiting the strong brines of salt works and natural salt lakes. See Artemia.
  • noun a spring of salt water.
  • noun (Saltmaking) brine which drops from granulated salt in drying, and is preserved to be boiled again.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun salt water; water saturated or strongly impregnated with salt; a salt-and-water solution for pickling
  • noun the sea or ocean; the water of the sea
  • verb transitive To preserve food in a salt solution.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun water containing salts
  • verb soak in brine
  • noun a strong solution of salt and water used for pickling

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English brīne.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English brȳne, from Proto-Germanic *brein- (compare West Frisian brein, Dutch brijn), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreHi- ‘to cut, maim’ (compare Old Irish ro·bria ‘may hurt, damage’, Latin friāre ‘to rub, crumble’, Slovenian bríti ‘to shave, shear’, Albanian brej ‘to gnaw’, Sanskrit bhrīņā́ti ‘they injure, hurt’).

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Examples

  • Canned green jackfruit in brine is the young and unripe version of this world's largest fruit, and what you want for this recipe (not the ripe kind you see in with the canned fruit!).

    Archive 2008-09-01 Sarah 2008

  • I'd say soaking the meat in brine overnight at a minimum.

    Smokin' Meat! 2009

  • Breast the duck, slice the breasts into 1 slices, soak them in brine for a while.

    Duck Breast 2009

  • Breast the duck, slice the breasts into 1 slices, soak them in brine for a while.

    Duck Breast 2009

  • Keep the ferment submerged in brine, adding more if it evaporates.

    fear not fermentation | Radical Futures Project 2010

  • He also said the rule of thumb for brine is keep adding salt until you can float an egg in it. interesting!

    Smokin' Meat! 2009

  • The chicken is soaked in brine for extra juiciness and de-boned for easy eating.

    Dish: Black Hainan Chicken Rice Amy Ma 2010

  • I'd say soaking the meat in brine overnight at a minimum.

    Smokin' Meat! 2009

  • I just find that many of these wines pick up a certain freshness and brine from the sea air they grow so close to, which just naturally well with raw fish.

    Sushi: an impossible food-wine pairing? | Dr Vino's wine blog 2009

  • He also said the rule of thumb for brine is keep adding salt until you can float an egg in it. interesting!

    Smokin' Meat! 2009

Comments

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  • I prefer my tinned tuna in brine.

    December 7, 2006

  • "4. To steep in brine, as corn, in order to prevent smut."

    --Century Dictionary

    February 8, 2011

  • That's weird, because I always have to run an anti-virus program to prevent smut.

    February 9, 2011