lime

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A spiny evergreen shrub or tree (Citrus aurantifolia), native to Asia and having leathery leaves, fragrant white flowers, and edible fruit.
2. n. The egg-shaped fruit of this plant, having a green rind and acid juice used as flavoring.
3. n. See linden.
4. n. See calcium oxide.
5. n. Any of various mineral and industrial forms of calcium oxide differing chiefly in water content and percentage of constituents such as silica, alumina, and iron. Also called quicklime.
6. n. Birdlime.
7. v. To treat with lime.
8. v. To smear with birdlime.
9. v. To catch or snare with or as if with birdlime.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Any viscous substance; especially, a viscous substance laid on twigs for catching birds; bird-lime.
2. n. An alkaline earth of great economic importance. It is the oxid of the metallic base calcium; but neither this metal nor its oxid occurs in nature in the uncombined condition, although existing in enormous quantity in various combinations. Lime as artificially made for use in the arts is prepared by calcining limestone or marble, or sometimes sea-shells, in properly constructed furnaces, known generally as lime-kilns, or simply kilns. By this process the carbonic acid is driven off from the lime, and the latter remains as an infusible amorphous substance, which is white when pure limestone has been employed. In this condition it is commonly known as quicklime. When exposed to the air it attracts moisture and falls into powder, with greater or less rapidity according to the humidity of the atmosphere and the quality of the lime. This process is called air-slaking. For use in preparing mortar lime is slaked by the addition of water, which is absorbed with avidity and with considerable evolution of heat. Lime may be so slaked that if packed in tight barrels immediately after the slaking it will keep for months without serious change or injury; in most cases, however, the lime is slaked with the addition of a large quantity of water, and is then immediately mixed with the amount of sand deemed suitable for making the desired quality of mortar. (See mortar.) There are few limestones which do not contain a greater or less quantity of sand and clay or of silicates of various bases mixed with the calcareous material. The lime as prepared from various qualities of rocks varies in character with the nature and amount of this foreign admixture. Limestone containing less than 5 or 6 per cent. of impurities yields a rich or, as it is often called, a “fat” lime; with more than that amount the lime is poor, and does not augment in bulk to any considerable extent when slaked with water. When the amount of silica, alumina, etc., in the limestone is increased to above 15 per cent., the lime made from it begins to acquire the property known as “hydraulicity,” or of hardening, or “setting,” as it is technically called, under water. (See cement, 2.) By far the most extensive use made of lime is as the chief ingredient in mortar; but there are many other purposes to which it is applied when a strong and cheap base is desired. It is of importance in tanning, in various processes of chemical manufacture, as in the preparation of ammonia and the caustic alkalis and of bleaching-powder, for fertilizing or ameliorating land, for purifying gas, and for various other purposes. Sulphate of lime, or gypsum, is found in the form of alabaster and of selenite. It is ground and roasted at a low heat to make plaster of Paris, and is used for molding and statuary, and also as a fertilizer. For notices of the nature and distribution of the most important salts of lime, see, for the carbonates, calcite, aragonite, limestone, and marble; for the sulphates, anhydrite, gypsum, and plaster of Paris (under plaster); for the phosphates, apatite and phosphorite. For the presence and action of lime in natural waters, see water, and also stalagmite and stalactite.
3. To smear with a viscous substance for the purpose of catching birds.
4. Hence To entangle; insnare; encumber.
5. To apply lime to; in a special use, to manure with lime, as soil; throw lime into, as a pond or stream, to kill the fish in it.
6. To sprinkle with slaked lime, as a floor; treat with lime; in leather manufacturing, to steep (hides) in a solution of lime in order to remove the hair.
7. To cement.
8. n. A tree of the genus Tilia, natural order Tiliaceæ; the linden.
9. Of or pertaining to the tree so called.
10. n. A tree, a variety of Citrus Medica. The sour lime (var. acida) has a globose fruit, smaller than the lemon, with thin rind, and yields an extremely acid juice. (See lime-juice.) It is cultivated in southern Europe, India, Florida, etc. The sweet lime of India is the variety Limetta.
11. n. The fruit of the lime-tree.
12. n. A cord for leading a dog; a leash. Hence limer, limmer, limehound.
13. n. Limit; end.
14. To file; polish.
15. n. In leather manufacturing, a vat containing a solution of lime for unhairing skins.
16. n. Citrus Australasica, a small tree of eastern Australia, bearing slender thorns, and ellipsoid or almost cylindrical fruits, 2–4 inches long, tasting like lemons.
17. n. The finger-lime;
18. n. An evergreen tree, Citrus australis, which reaches a height of from 30 to 50 feet and bears globular, acid fruits about the size of walnuts. Its beautiful light-yellow wood is hard, close-grained, and takes a high polish. Called also native orange.

Wiktionary

1. n. A green citrus fruit, somewhat smaller and sharper-tasting than a lemon.
2. n. Any of the trees that bear limes, especially Citrus aurantiifolia.
3. n. A light, somewhat yellowish, green colour associated with the fruits of a lime tree.
4. adj. Containing lime or lime juice.
5. adj. Having the aroma or flavor of lime.
6. adj. Lime-green.
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8. n. A deciduous tree of the genus Tilia, especially Tilia × europaea; the linden tree, or its wood.
9. n. chemistry A general term for inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide; quicklime.
10. n. poetic Any gluey or adhesive substance; something which traps or captures someone; sometimes a synonym for birdlime.
11. v. transitive To treat with calcium hydroxide or calcium oxide (lime).
12. v. transitive To smear with birdlime.
13. v. transitive To apply limewash

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A thong by which a dog is led; a leash.
2. n. (Bot.) The linden tree. See linden.
3. n. (Bot.) The fruit of the Citrus aurantifolia, allied to the lemon, but greener in color; also, the tree which bears it.
4. n. The color of the lime{1}, a yellowish-green.
5. n. Birdlime.
6. n. (Chem.) Oxide of calcium, CaO; the white or gray, caustic substance, usually called quicklime, obtained by calcining limestone or shells, the heat driving off carbon dioxide and leaving lime. It develops great heat when treated with water, forming slaked lime, and is an essential ingredient of cement, plastering, mortar, etc.
7. v. To smear with a viscous substance, as birdlime.
8. v. To entangle; to insnare.
9. v. To treat with lime, or oxide or hydrate of calcium; to manure with lime
10. v. To cement.
11. adj. having a yellowish-green color like that of the lime (the fruit).

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a white crystalline oxide used in the production of calcium hydroxide
2. n. a sticky adhesive that is smeared on small branches to capture small birds
3. n. a caustic substance produced by heating limestone
4. n. the green acidic fruit of any of various lime trees
5. n. any of various related trees bearing limes
6. v. cover with lime so as to induce growth
7. v. spread birdlime on branches to catch birds
8. n. any of various deciduous trees of the genus Tilia with heart-shaped leaves and drooping cymose clusters of yellowish often fragrant flowers; several yield valuable timber