Nitid, nit′id, adj. shining: gay.—n. Nī′tency, brightness. [L. nitidus—nitēre, to shine.]
Nitre, nī′tėr, n. the nitrate of potash—also called Saltpetre.—n. Nī′trāte, a salt of nitric acid.—adjs. Nī′trāted, combined with nitric acid; Nī′tric, pertaining to, formed from, or containing or resembling nitre.—n. Nī′tric ac′id, an acid got by distilling a mixture of sulphuric acid and nitrate of sodium—it acts powerfully on metals, and is known by the name of Aqua-fortis.—adj. Nitrif′erous, nitre-bearing.—n. Nitrificā′tion.—v.t. Nī′trify, to convert into nitre.—v.i. to become nitre:—pr.p. nī′trifying; pa.t. and pa.p. nī′trified.—ns. Nī′trite, a salt of nitrous acid; Nī′tro-ben′zol, a yellow oily fluid, obtained by treating benzol with warm fuming nitric acid—used in perfumery and known as Essence of mirbane; Nī′tro-glyc′erine, a powerfully explosive compound produced by the action of nitric and sulphuric acids on glycerine—sometimes used in minute doses as a medicine.—adjs. Nitrose′, Nī′trous, resembling, or containing, nitre.—n. Nī′trous ox′ide, a combination of oxygen and nitrogen, called also Laughing gas, which causes, when breathed, insensibility to pain.—adj. Nī′try, of or producing nitre.—Cubic nitre, nitrate of soda, so called because it crystallises in cubes. [Fr.,—L. nitrum—Gr. nitron, natron, potash, soda—Ar. nitrún, natrún.]
Nitrogen, nī′tro-jen, n. a gas forming nearly four-fifths of common air, a necessary constituent of every organised body, so called from its being an essential constituent of nitre.—adjs. Nitrogen′ic, Nitrog′enous.—v.t. Nitrog′enise, to impregnate with nitrogen.—n. Nitrom′eter, an apparatus for estimating nitrogen in some of its combinations. [Gr. nitron, and gennaein, to generate.]
Nitter, nit′ėr, n. a bot-fly, the horse-bot.
Nittings, nit′ingz, n.pl. small particles of coal or refuse of any ore.
Nival, nī′val, adj. snowy, growing among snow.—adj. Niv′eous, snowy, white.—n. Nivôse (nē-vōz′), the 4th month of the French revolutionary calendar, Dec. 21-Jan. 19. [L. niveus—nix, nivis, snow.]
Nix, niks, n. (Teut. myth.) a water-spirit, mostly malignant.—Also Nix′ie, Nix′y. [Ger. nix; cf. Nicker.]
Nix, niks, n. nothing: (U.S.) in the postal service, anything unmailable because addressed to places which are not post-offices or to post-offices not existing in the States, &c., indicated in the address—usually in pl. [Ger. nichts, nothing.]
Nix, niks, interj. a roughs' street-cry of warning at the policeman, &c.
Nizam, ni-zam′, n. the title of the sovereign of Hyderabad in India, first used in 1713: sing. and pl. the Turkish regulars, or one of them. [Hind., contr. of Nizam-ul-Mulk=Regulator of the state.]