silver nitrate

noun

, Chemistry, Pharmacology.

1. a white, crystalline, water-soluble, bitter, corrosive, poisonous powder, AgNO 3 , produced by the reaction of silver and dilute nitric acid: used chiefly in the manufacture of photographic emulsions and mirrors, as a laboratory reagent, and in medicine as an antiseptic, astringent, and in the routine prophylaxis of ophthalmia neonatorum.

silver nitrate

noun

1. a white crystalline soluble poisonous substance used in making photographic emulsions, other silver salts, and as a medical antiseptic and astringent. Formula: AgNO 3 See also lunar caustic

silver nitrate

1. A poisonous, clear, crystalline compound that darkens when exposed to light. It is used in photography and silver plating, and as an external antiseptic. Chemical formula: AgNO 3 .

Word History and Origins

Origin of silver nitrate¹

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

But the director kept a copy, shot on highly unstable silver nitrate film, in his freezer.

From Los Angeles Times

My mother treated them with silver nitrate, which hurt like heck.

From Seattle Times

Fires took others—silver nitrate, the compound in early film stock which makes the images shimmer, is so flammable that a tightly wound roll of such film can burn even submerged in water.

From The New Yorker

It includes a little detective story, told by a fellow chemist, of how intermittent batches of silver nitrate papers supplied for X-ray imagery were spoilt.

From Nature

The treatment at the time — silver nitrate, opium and tannic acid enemas — destroyed his intestines.

From New York Times