lime
pronunciation
How to pronounce lime in British English:
UK [laɪm]
How to pronounce lime in American English:
US [laɪm]
-
- Noun:
- a caustic substance produced by heating limestone
- a white crystalline oxide used in the production of calcium hydroxide
- a sticky adhesive that is smeared on small branches to capture small birds
- any of various related trees bearing limes
- any of various deciduous trees of the genus Tilia with heart-shaped leaves and drooping cymose clusters of yellowish often fragrant flowers; several yield valuable timber
- the green acidic fruit of any of various lime trees
-
- Verb:
- spread birdlime on branches to catch birds
- cover with lime so as to induce growth
Word Origin
- lime
- lime: English has three distinct words lime, of which by far the oldest is lime the ‘chalky substance’ [OE]. It goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *līm- (shared also by German leim, Dutch lijm, and Swedish limma), a variant of which also produced English loam [OE]. Lime the ‘citrus fruit’ [17] comes via French lime and Provençal limo from Arabic līmah ‘citrus fruit’, which was also the source of English lemon [14].And lime the ‘tree’ [17] is an alteration of an earlier line, a variant of lind ‘lime tree’ (the closely related linden was acquired in the 16th century, from German lindenbaum or early modern Dutch lindenboom ‘lime tree’).=> loam; lemon; linden
- lime (n.1)
- "chalky mineral used in making mortar," from Old English lim "sticky substance, birdlime, mortar, cement, gluten," from Proto-Germanic *leimaz (cognates: Old Saxon, Old Norse, Danish lim, Dutch lijm, German Leim "birdlime"), from PIE root *(s)lei- "slime, slimy, sticky" (cognates: Latin limus "slime, mud, mire," linere "to smear;" see slime (n.)). Lime is made by putting limestone or shells in a red heat, which burns off the carbonic acid and leaves a brittle white solid which dissolves easily in water. Hence lime-kiln (late 13c.), lime-burner (early 14c.). As a verb, c. 1200, from the noun.
- lime (n.2)
- greenish-yellow citrus fruit, 1630s, probably via Spanish lima, from Arabic limah "citrus fruit," from Persian limun "lemon" (see lemon (n.1)). Related: Limeade (1892), with ending as in lemonade.
- lime (n.3)
- "linden tree," 1620s, earlier line (c. 1500), from Middle English lynde (early 14c.), from Old English lind "lime tree" (see linden). Klein suggests the change of -n- to -m- probably began in compounds whose second element began in a labial (such as line-bark, line-bast). An ornamental European tree unrelated to the tree that produces the citrus fruit.
Example
- 1. No wallpaper , no paint , no slaked lime .
- 2. Add a little bit of lime or lemon juice .
- 3. Chesapeake will retain operational control of the mississippi lime field .
- 4. Thirty-tonne trucks have finished spreading lime fertiliser to reduce the acidity of the soil .
- 5. When the bones have been dried and bleached by the sun , they are gathered and dissolved in lime .