nitrous : Idioms & Phrases

• noun an unstable inorganic acid known only in solution and as nitrite salts
  

WordNet

• (Chem.), a hypothetical acid of nitrogen HNO2, not known in the free state, but forming a well known series of salts, viz., the nitrites.

Webster 1913

• noun soil bacteria that oxidize ammonia to nitrites
  nitrosobacteria.
  

WordNet

• noun any of the nitrobacteria that oxidize ammonia into nitrites
  nitrite bacterium.
  

WordNet

• noun inhalation anesthetic used as an anesthetic in dentistry and surgery
  laughing gas.
  

WordNet

• . See Laughing gas.

Webster 1913

• (Med. Chem.), a pale yellow liquid, of a sweetish taste and a pleasant ethereal odor. It is obtained by the distillatin of alcohol with nitric and sulphuric acids, and consists essentially of ethyl nitrite with a little acetic aldehyde. It is used a diaphoretic, diuretic, antispasmodic, etc. Called also sweet spirit of niter.

Webster 1913