lime
/laɪm/ noun, verb, adjective
Forms limes liming limed
- noun (chemistry) Any inorganic material containing calcium, usually calcium oxide (quicklime) or calcium hydroxide (slaked lime).
- noun (poetic) Any gluey or adhesive substance that traps or captures; sometimes a synonym for birdlime.
- noun (theater) A limelight; any spotlight.
- verb (transitive) To treat with calcium hydroxide or calcium oxide (lime).
- verb (transitive) To smear with birdlime.
- verb (rare) To ensnare, catch, entrap.
- verb (transitive) To apply limewash.
- noun A deciduous tree of the genus Tilia, especially Tilia × europaea; the linden tree.
- noun The wood of this tree.
- noun Any of several green citrus fruit, somewhat smaller and sharper-tasting than a lemon.
- noun Any of the trees that bear limes, especially Key lime, Citrus aurantiifolia.
- noun (uncountable) Any of several brilliant, sometimes yellowish, green colours associated with the fruits of a lime tree.
- noun A particular one of those colours that has been standardized under this name, at least in some organizations' standards.
- noun (fandom slang) A fan fiction story which contains sexual references, but stops short of full, explicit descriptions of sexual activity (coined by analogy with lemon).
- adjective Containing lime or lime juice.
- adjective Having the aroma or flavor of lime.
- adjective Lime-green.
- verb (Caribbean, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, informal) To hang out or socialize in an informal, relaxed environment, especially with friends, for example at a party or on the beach.
- noun (Caribbean, Trinidad & Tobago) A casual gathering to socialize.
Synonyms
lime green calcium hydroxide slaked lime hydrated lime calcium hydrate caustic lime lime hydrate calcium oxide quicklime calx calcined lime fluxing lime unslaked lime burnt lime birdlime lime tree Citrus aurantifolia linden linden tree basswood
Etymology
From Middle English lyme, lym, lime, from Old English līm, from Proto-West Germanic *līm, from Proto-Germanic *līmaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂leyH- (“to smear”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Liem (“glue”), Dutch lijm (“glue”), German Leim (“glue”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish lim (“glue”), Faroese and Icelandic lím (“glue”), Latin limus (“mud”).
Lime (17th c.) and line (16th c.) are alterations of obsolete lind, from Middle English lynde, from Old English lind, from Proto-Germanic *lindijō. The phonetic development is unusual, but it has been suggested that it began in compounds (loss of -d- perhaps before tree, the change to -m- before labials as in bark or wood). Doublet of linden, which see.
Borrowed from French lime, from Spanish lima, from Arabic لِيمَة (līma), from Classical Persian لِیمُو (līmū, līmō), from Sanskrit निम्बू (nimbū, “lime”), ultimately from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *limaw or Munda. Doublet of lemon.
Either a back-formation of limer or from the derogatory term limey, a term first given to British soldiers but also used by Trinidadians for American soldiers who used to hang out idle in Port of Spain during World War 2.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A thong by which a dog is led; a leash. Halliwell.
- noun The linden tree. See Linden.
- noun A fruit allied to the lemon, but much smaller; also, the tree which bears it. There are two kinds; Citrus Medica, var. acida which is intensely sour, and the sweet lime (C. Medica, var. Limetta) which is only slightly sour.
- noun Birdlime.
Etymology [See Leam a string.]
Etymology [Formerly line, for earlier lind. See Linden.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “lime”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details