sulfur

plural sulfurs · alternative sulphur

1. uncountableusuallychemistryA chemical element with atomic number 16, having a bright yellow color and characteristic smell, used commercially in a variety of products such as insecticides, black powder, and matchsticks.

   Mildex is a specific for powdery mildew which fungicides other than the sulfur compounds do not control. Sulfurs, however, injure melons, cucumbers and squash and should not be used on them.

   1955 January 30, Louis Pyenson, “Bright Hopes for Plant Health”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC

   5 more examples

   A Dungeon horrible, on all ſides round / As one great Furnace flam’d, yet from thoſe flames / No light, but rather darkneſs viſible / […] but torture without end / Still urges, and a fiery Deluge, fed / With ever-burning Sulphur unconſum’d:

   1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC

   Sure only that man is mortal; that with the life of one mortal snaps irrevocably the wonderfulest talisman, and all Dubarrydom rushes off, with tumult, into infinite Space; and ye, as subterranean Apparitions are wont, vanish utterly,—leaving only a smell of sulphur!

   1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter 1, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book I (Death of Louis XV)

   Scarcely had these manifestations ceased at Ustica, than Vesuvius began to show signs of increased activity; the supplies in the wells on the mountain sides began to fail, and there was observed a strong taste of sulphur in the drinking water; whilst—most dreaded phenomenon of all—the ever-active crater of Stromboli, that lies midway between Naples and Messina, suddenly lapsed into quiescence.

   1907, Herbert M. Vaughan, The Naples Riviera

   It went like this: first, we were cavemen, then there was ancient Greece, then Rome burned (cue sulfur-odor FX), then there was the Great Depression, and, finally, we reached the modern age.

   2003, Cory Doctorow, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Tor Books

   Carbon monoxide emissions are reduced by 43 percent, hydrocarbons by 56 percent, particulates by 55 percent and sulfurs, a particular problem with petroleum diesel, are reduced by 100 percent.

   2003 April 22, Chris Dixon, “Recipe for Car Power: Heat Vegetable Oil, Flip Switch and Go”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 Nov 2010

   Synonyms: brimstone, devil's gold

   1. uncountableusuallychemistryThe element symbolically associated with hellfire or damnation, or in alchemy, the fiery principle present in all things.

      “She shall be blasted like a riven oak! Drowned in sulphur! Torn by whirlwinds!”

      1970, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 68

      Synonyms: brimstone, devil's gold, brimstone

2. countableuncountableusuallyA yellowish green colour, like that of sulfur.

   Now yellow is ascendant: ambers, golds and sulfurs radiate from the fallen leaves among the rocks and tree trunks.

   2011 November 11, Marielle Anzelone, “Green Fades, Ambers and Golds Radiate”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 Nov 2011

3. countableusuallyAny of various pierid butterflies of the subfamily Coliadinae, especially the sulfur-coloured species.

   Some butterflies – monarchs, sulfurs, red admirals – hop freely across roads and farm fields in search of the next prairie remnant.

   2002 January 8, Sam Hooper Samuels, “Making the Best of What Remains of Shrinking Habitats”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 May 2015

comparative more sulfur · superlative most sulfur · alternative sulphur

1. Of a yellowish green colour, like that of sulfur.
2. Having a characteristic sulfur-like smell, reminiscent of rotten eggs.

   1 more example

   On the November morning when the sulfur burps began, Derron Borders was welcoming prospective students at the graduate school where he works in New York. […] Sulfur burps appear to be a somewhat rare side effect of semaglutide, tirzepatide, and other drugs in their class, known as GLP-1 receptor agonists.

   2023 May 2, Rachel Gutman-Wei, “Beware the Ozempic Burp”, in The Atlantic

present singular third person sulfurs · participle present sulfuring · participle past sulfured · past sulfured · alternative sulphur

1. transitiveTo treat with sulfur, or a sulfur compound, especially to preserve or to counter agricultural pests.