Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A colorless, spontaneously flammable poisonous gas, PH3, having a fishy odor and used as a fumigant and as a doping agent for solid-state components.
- noun Any of several organic compounds having the structure of an amine but with phosphorus in place of nitrogen.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A coal-tar coloring matter related to acridine. It is a by-product in the manufacture of magenta, and is used chiefly for dyeing leather a reddish yellow. Also known as leather-yellow and Philadelphia yellow G.
- noun Same as
phosphureted hydrogen (which see, underphosphureted ).
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Chem.) A colorless gas, PH3, analogous to ammonia, and having a disagreeable odor resembling that of garlic. Called also
hydrogen phosphide , and formerly,phosphureted hydrogen . - noun (Dyeing) Chrysaniline, often in the form of a salt.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun chemistry, uncountable a
toxic gas ;hydride ofphosphorus , PH3 - noun chemistry, countable any
alkyl oraryl derivative of this compound, PR3 (where at least one R is not H)
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a colorless gas with a strong fishy smell; used as a pesticide
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Titan life's metabolism might involve chemical compounds such as phosphine and hydrogen sulfide, which are both foul-smelling gases that are toxic to humans.
SPACE.com 2010
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The only gas I can think of is poisonous phosphine which is not especially stable.
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India exports corn fumigated with aluminium phosphine, considered milder than methyl bromide, across Asia; no other Asian countries have complained of pests.
Vietnam Says Indian Corn No Good, Blames Pest Sameer Mohindru 2011
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The dragons, named for the mythical Terran beast they resembled, had two valuable characteristics: They could instantaneously travel from one place to another, and after chewing a phosphine, bearing rock, they could emit a flaming gas.
Artichoke Christian Bell 2010
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I discovered turned out to be quite useful for asymmetric hydrogenation, at least those that contained the appropriate enantiomerically pure phosphine ligand.
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Methyl bromide which is currently being replaced by phosphine for the fumigation of stored cocoa beans has been identified as an ozone-depleting substance.
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The resourceful colonists fought back with the last of their space-going technology while devising a series of long-term, biological defenses, chief among them, fire-breathing dragons that chewed phosphine-bearing rocks -- firestone -- to create their flames.
Dragon's Fire McCaffrey, Anne 2006
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Children in the home may be injured by direct contact with caustic materials such as lye and hydrochloric acid, solvents such as acetone and ether, or toxic gases such as ammonia vapors and phosphine gas.
The Crisis of Meth 2006
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(A) was replaced by one of the enantiomers of a chiral phosphine.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2001 - Information for the Public 2001
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The phosphine first used by Knowles was not enantiomerally pure, yet it produced a mixture in which there was
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2001 - Information for the Public 2001
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Phosphine, an uneasy alliance of a phosphorus atom and three hydrogen atoms, is hard to make and easily destroyed; on gas giants it’s created deep in the hot, high pressure lower layers of the atmosphere, then dredged upward by flowing currents.
Something’s Up on Venus. What Happens to the Planet Now? Lucianne Walkowicz 2020
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