brine

plural brines

1. uncountableusuallySalt water; water saturated or strongly impregnated with salt; a salt-and-water solution for pickling.

   Do you want a can of tuna in oil or in brine?

   1 more example

   Philander went into the next room[…]and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm. Then he put the coffee pot on the stove and rummaged out a loaf of dry bread and some hardtack.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

2. uncountableusuallyThe sea or ocean; the water of the sea.

   "Ho, aboard the Salt Junk Sarah, Rollin" home across the line, The Bo'sun collared the Captain's hat And threw it in the brine.

   1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 52

   1 more example

   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.

   1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 3

present singular third person brines · participle present brining · participle past brined · past brined

1. transitiveTo preserve food in a salt solution.
2. transitiveTo prepare and flavor food (especially meat) for cooking by soaking in a salt solution.

1. A surname.