Adjacent Words

nitric oxide definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a poisonous red-brown gas (NO)

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 1807 a colorless poisonous gas NO formed by oxidation of nitrogen or ammonia that is present in the atmosphere and also in mammals where it is synthesized from arginine and oxygen and acts as a vasodilator and as a mediator of cell-to-cell communication

Britannica Concise

Colorless, toxic gas (NO), formed from nitrogen and oxygen by the action of electric sparks or high temperatures or, more conveniently, by the action of dilute nitric acid on copper or mercury. First prepared c.1620 by J. van Helmont, it was first studied in 1772 by J. Priestley, who called it "nitrous air." An industrial procedure for the manufacture of hydroxylamine is based on the reaction of nitric oxide with hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst. The formation of nitric oxide from nitric acid and mercury is applied in a volumetric method of analysis for nitric acid or its salts.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Nitric Ni"tric, a. [Cf. F. nitrique. See Niter.] (Chem.) Of, pertaining to, or containing, nitrogen; specifically, designating any one of those compounds in which, as contrasted with nitrous compounds, the element has a higher valence; as, nitric oxide; nitric acid. Nitric acid, a colorless or yellowish liquid obtained by distilling a nitrate with sulphuric acid. It is powerfully corrosive, being a strong acid, and in decomposition a strong oxidizer. Nitric anhydride, a white crystalline oxide of nitrogen (N2O5), called nitric pentoxide, and regarded as the anhydride of nitric acid. Nitric oxide, a colorless poisous gas (NO) obtained by treating nitric acid with copper. On contact with the air or with oxygen, it becomes reddish brown from the formation of nitric dioxide or peroxide.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

Deutoxide of nitrogen, binoxide of nitrogen, nitrous gas, nitrous air.