cyanide

noun, verb — 4 senses

cyanide

noun

/ˈsaɪənaɪd/

Etymology From cyan- + -ide.

1

Chemistry, Inorganic chemistry, Natural sciences, Organic chemistry, Physical sciences Any compound containing the -C≡N group or the CN⁻ anion.

2

Chemistry, Inorganic chemistry, Natural sciences, Physical sciences Sodium or potassium cyanide, used in the extraction of gold and silver or as a poison.

  • The birdies all try an' hide / But they still go for peanuts / When coated with cyanide1959, Tom Lehrer, “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park”:
  • Two doctors and a metallurgist from Scotland patented a process for dissolving gold with cyanide in 1887 and patented the recovery of gold from solution using finely divided zinc (zinc precipitation) the following year. […] The first commercial processing plant to use cyanide in the milling circuit was constructed at the Crown mine at Karangahake, New Zealand in 1889.1988 July, Michael A. Silva, “Cyanide Heap Leaching in California”, in California Geology, volume 41, number 7, page 147:
1 more example
  • The vast majority of the victims, on Jones’s orders, had drunk a fruit punch mixture laced with cyanide, a deadly poison. Adults had fed the poisoned liquid to the children, including infants.2000, Sean Dolan, Everything You Need to Know About Cults, New York: The Rosen Publishing Groups, Inc., →ISBN, page 15:
3

Chemistry, Inorganic chemistry, Natural sciences, Physical sciences Hydrogen cyanide, or cyanide gas, a poisonous gas.

Derived terms
aurocyanide, benzyl cyanide, bicyanide, bromobenzyl cyanide, carbonyl cyanide, cyanidation, cyanide fishing, cyanide process, cyanidol, dicyanide, ferricyanide, ferrocyanide, hydrocyanide, isocyanide, leucocyanide, methyl cyanide, platinocyanide, potassium silver cyanide, protocyanide, selenocyanide, silver cyanide, thiocyanide, tricyanide, vinyl cyanide

cyanide

verb

Etymology From cyan- + -ide.

1

To treat or poison with cyanide.

Related terms
hydrocyanic acid, Zyklon B, Nevada gas

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.