cyanide
See also: Cyanide
English edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
cyanide (countable and uncountable, plural cyanides)
- (inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, countable) Any compound containing the -C≡N group or the CN− anion.
- (inorganic chemistry) Sodium or potassium cyanide, used in the extraction of gold and silver or as a poison.
- 1959, Tom Lehrer (lyrics and music), “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park”:
- The birdies all try an' hide / But they still go for peanuts / When coated with cyanide
- 1988 July, Michael A. Silva, “Cyanide Heap Leaching in California”, in California Geology[1], volume 41, number 7, page 147:
- Two doctors and a metallurgist from Scotland patented a process for dissolving gold with cyanide in 1887 and patented the recovery of gold from solution using finely divided zinc (zinc precipitation) the following year. […]
The first commercial processing plant to use cyanide in the milling circuit was constructed at the Crown mine at Karangahake, New Zealand in 1889.
- 2000, Sean Dolan, Everything You Need to Know About Cults[2], New York: The Rosen Publishing Groups, Inc., →ISBN, page 15:
- The vast majority of the victims, on Jones’s orders, had drunk a fruit punch mixture laced with cyanide, a deadly poison. Adults had fed the poisoned liquid to the children, including infants.
- (inorganic chemistry, uncountable) Hydrogen cyanide, or cyanide gas, a poisonous gas.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
chemistry: any compound containing the CN group
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potassium cyanide — see potassium cyanide
hydrogen cyanide — see hydrogen cyanide
Verb edit
cyanide (third-person singular simple present cyanides, present participle cyaniding, simple past and past participle cyanided)
- (transitive) To treat or poison with cyanide.
See also edit
- hydrocyanic acid
- Zyklon B
- Nevada gas (slang)
Anagrams edit
Dutch edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed. Equivalent to cyaan + -ide. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
cyanide n (uncountable)
- cyanide (C≡N-based compound)