chloride of lime
- noun
- Archaic
:
cloruro de cal
- Historically, chloride of lime was a common household product for whitening laundry.
Examples
-
The public swimming pool is cleaned regularly with chloride of lime to ensure proper sanitation.
-
Workers handled barrels of chloride of lime during the disinfection process.
-
The gardener used chloride of lime to disinfect the soil.
-
Is chloride of lime safe for indoor use?
-
The public swimming pool is cleaned regularly with chloride of lime to ensure proper sanitation.
-
Workers handled barrels of chloride of lime during the disinfection process.
-
Historically, chloride of lime was a common household product for whitening laundry.
Synonyms
1
8.4
A salt used to kill germs and bleach things
1
4.9
A white chemical used to clean and kill germs in water, for example in pools
A white powder used to bleach clothes and to kill germs
A white powder used to bleach and kill germs in water and on surfaces
Surface Forms
Morphology
Knowing 'chloride' and 'lime' lets a learner infer this is a chemical associated with lime (i.e., a chlorine-containing compound derived from lime), so they would recognise it as a chemical substance. However the precise identity (calcium hypochlorite rather than a simple chloride) and its specific use as a bleaching/disinfectant are technical and not directly predictable from the parts, so the expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Chloride of lime comes from how people once made the white cleaning powder: they mixed 'chlorine' with a lime material to make a white chloride that bleached clothes and killed germs. That's why chloride of lime means a powder used to 'bleach' and 'disinfect'.