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brine

UK/ˈbɹaɪ̯n/US/ˈbɹaɪ̯n/
nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #11,803 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: brines

Brine is very salty water used for pickling and preserving. Steep in brine, a brine solution, olives in brine.

Salt draws water out of bacteria and stops them growing, which is what preserves the food. Brining meat before cooking does the opposite of what people expect: the meat takes water in and holds it, which is why a brined bird stays moist.

Peter Summerlin · CC BY-SA 3.0

Definitions of brine

  1. 1nounbrineVery salty water used for pickling and preserving.C1

    “The olives are kept in brine to stop them going bad.”

    • Said"Leave the chicken in the brine overnight for me; it stays juicy that way."
    • WrittenThe cucumbers floated in brines in jars the size of a child, waiting for winter.
    • UsedRinse the brine off before cooking, or the finished dish will be too salty.
    • ContrastBrine, not water. Water is plain; brine is water so salty it preserves whatever sits in it. water →
    • Not thisSea water is not brine, though it is salty. Brine is made on purpose, and stronger.
    • SimplyThe fish is in brine. It is very salty.

    Patternin brine · a brine of + noun · brine the meat · brined · pickling brine

brine is a liquid.

Also accepted in games: salt water

Remember it

BRINe → BRINg the sea home in a jar

Bring the sea home in a jar: water as salty as the sea itself, with cucumbers floating in it until they turn into pickles.

hooks ontobring

Where it comes from

Old English brine names salt water, from a Germanic root of unknown further origin.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *bʰreyH- — to cut, maim

  2. Proto-Germanic

    *brīnǭ — salt water, brine

  3. Proto-West Germanic

    *brīnā

  4. Old English

    brīne

  5. Middle English

    brine

  6. English, today

    brine

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”), vls brijne), of unknown, 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 (“they injure, hurt”). Alternatively, from Proto-Indo-European mriHnós, from móri (compare Latin marīnus).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in In the Kitchen

Practise this word

brine in the wild

  • Marinating is similar to brining, except that brining relies on the action of salty brine rather than the action of acids or enzymes.

    Marination

  • Brining is treating food with brine or coarse salt which preserves and seasons the food while enhancing tenderness.

    Brining

  • "the river which throws up salt" - which overflows from the salt brines.

    Droitwich Spa

  • Artemia is a genus of aquatic crustaceans also known as brine shrimp.

    Brine shrimp

  • Usually the process is conducted on a brine (an aqueous solution of concentrated NaCl), in which case sodium hydroxide (NaOH), hydrogen, and chlorine result.

    Chloralkali process

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

  • brined