MEANING
1. Water containing a high concentration of dissolved salt, often used for preserving or preparing food.
2. The sea or its salty water, especially when described in literary language.
3. To soak food in a salt-water solution to season or preserve it.
Use it for
describing strongly salty water; naming liquid used to preserve fish; distinguishing a concentrated salt solution from ordinary fresh waterSeparates concentrated salt water, literary seawater, and the action of soaking food in a salt solution. Writing functions: Salt water / Marine imagery.
Words that belong together
- strong brine
- salt brine
- fish preserved in brine
On the page
The fish lay in barrels of brine beside the quay.
Crystals formed where the brine had dried on the boards.
She surfaced coughing, with brine burning her throat.
The rope smelled of tar and brine.
They brined the catch before loading it into the smoking shed.
Word forms
- Base
- brine
- Past tense
- brined
- Past participle
- brined
- Present participle
- brining
Usage notes
Mass noun in ordinary use; brines for distinct solutions. Verb: brine, brines, brined, brining; will brine. Register: neutral. Commonness: moderately common; the sea meaning is literary (dictionary-informed qualitative editorial estimate; not a measured frequency).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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