Bromide Meaning
/ˈbɹəʊ.maɪd/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA binary compound of bromine and some other element or radical.
nounA binary compound of bromine and some other element or radical., Any salt of hydrobromic acid.
Sentence Examples
In culinary, can you substitute sodium bromide for sodium chloride?
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
The chemist added a silver ____ compound to the solution for the photographic experiment.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
____ is a chemical compound that was once used as a mild sedative.
Word Origin & History
From brom- + -ide. First used in the sense “dull person” by American artist, art critic, poet, author and humorist Gelett Burgess. Figurative sense ("platitude") by extending the medicating sense through the metaphor of pacifying or placating.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"“How fortunate Buddha, Mahomed, and Shakespeare were that their kind relations and doctors did not cure them of their ecstasy and their inspiration,” said Kovrin. “If Mahomed had taken bromide for his nerves, had worked only two hours out of the twenty-four, and had drunk milk, that remarkable man would have left no more trace after him than his dog. […]”"
— 1894, Anton Chekhov, translated by Constance Garnett, The Black Monk, published 1917:
"The bromide conforms to everything sanctioned by the majority, and may be depended upon to be trite, banal, and arbitrary."
— 1906, Frank Gelett Burgess, Are You A Bromide?:
"No organicist metaphor, no irrelevant bromide that "we are all part of one another," must be permitted to obscure this basic fact."
— 1974, Murray Newton Rothbard, “What the State Is Not”, in Anatomy of the State:
"Gascoigne was annoyed by this. ‘Well, I wish you luck, Mr. Lauderback, in bringing Mr. Carver to justice,’ he said.
‘Spare the bromide,’ Lauderback snapped. ‘Talk to me plain.’"
— 2013, Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries, London: Granta Books, published 2014, →ISBN, page 569:
"Certainly not Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who is clearly the Rupert Murdoch of his generation. He’s always justifying his cowardly choices with vacuous bromides about “free speech,” but he’s obviously just in it for the money — no matter how much his platform is used to destroy our democracy."
— 2020 June 2, Thomas L. Friedman, “America, We Break It, It’s Gone”, in New York Times:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The chemist added a silver ____ compound to the solution for the photographic experiment.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
____ is a chemical compound that was once used as a mild sedative.