Brine
name, noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Salt water; water saturated or strongly impregnated with salt; a salt-and-water solution for pickling. uncountable, usually
"Do you want a can of tuna in oil or in brine?"
- 2 a strong solution of salt and water used for pickling wordnet
- 3 The sea or ocean; the water of the sea. uncountable, usually
"Ariell: Not a ſoule But felt a Feauer of the madde, and plaid Some tricks of deſperation ; all but Mariners Plung'd in the foaming bryne, and quit the veſſell ; Then all a fire with me the Kings ſonne Ferdinand With haire vp-ſtaring (then like reeds, not haire) Was the firſt man that leapt ; cride hell is empty, And all the Diuels are heere."
- 4 water containing salts wordnet
- 1 To preserve food in a salt solution. transitive
- 2 soak in brine wordnet
- 3 To prepare and flavor food (especially meat) for cooking by soaking in a salt solution. transitive
- 1 A surname.
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Tunnels within sea ice called brine channels house bacteria and algae that feed flatworms and other tunnel-dwelling creatures."
Etymology
From Middle English brine, bryne, from Old English brīne, from Proto-West Germanic *brīnā, from Proto-Germanic *brīnǭ (“salt water, brine”) (compare Scots brime, West Frisian brein, Dutch brijn (“brine”), West Flemish brijne), of unknown ultimate origin, but probably from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreyH- (“to cut, maim”). Cognates include Old Irish ro·bria (“may hurt, damage”), Latin friāre (“to rub, crumble”), Slovene bríti (“to shave, shear”), Albanian brej (“to gnaw”), Sanskrit बृणाति (bṛṇā́ti, “they injure, hurt”). Alternatively, from Proto-Indo-European *mriHnós, from *móri (compare Latin marīnus).
* As a Dutch surname, Americanized from Bruin. * As an English surname, possibly from Old English bryne (“burning”).
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.