Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Calcium oxid, CaO; burned lime; lime not yet slaked with water.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Chem.) Calcium oxide; unslacked lime; -- so called because when wet it develops great heat. See 4th lime, 2.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun lime, (calcium oxide), produced by heating limestone; on treatment with water it gives slaked lime
  • verb transitive To treat with quicklime.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a white crystalline oxide used in the production of calcium hydroxide

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English qwyke lyme, living lime (translation of Latin calx vīva) : quick, qwyke, living; see quick + lime, lyme, lime; see lime.]

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Examples

  • If at some later stage something drastic occurs -- like some bodies being found in quicklime during an election campaign -- and the government produces some legislation on the subject, are the proponents of the Brief consulted?

    Law Reform—The Businessman's Responsibility 1966

  • Water acts upon lime with the evolution of a great deal of heat, -- hence the name quicklime, or live lime, -- the process being called slaking.

    An Elementary Study of Chemistry William McPherson

  • Larger corpses have been mercifully lacking, with the exception of two sheep who made the shingle spit unvisitable for a couple of weeks before they were solemnly buried in quicklime by the local police.

    Try Anything Twice 1938

  • Water flows into a sealed inner cone filled with quicklime, which is mostly calcium oxide.

    Boing Boing: May 8, 2005 - May 14, 2005 Archives 2005

  • This leaves only calcium oxide CaO, known as quicklime, the proportion of which determines the quality of the final product.

    Chapter 7 1994

  • The process of burning limestone at temperatures above 900° C to produce quicklime, which is subsequently slaked with water to produce hydrated lime, has since become traditional practice in most countries, as lime is one of the most versatile materials known, being used for numerous industrial and agricultural processes, environmental protection and building construction.

    Chapter 4 1988

  • The material which comes from the kiln is called quicklime, and, on being dosed with water, it slakes, and crumbles to powder, and in the state of slaked lime is mixed up with mortar.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 601, July 9, 1887 Various

  • The coffin was of lead, and in it was found a skeleton of an extraordinary size, imbedded in quicklime, which is another proof of the Greek origin of Palæologus, as it is the custom in Greece to surround the body with quicklime.

    Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 419 Volume 17, New Series, January 10, 1852 Various 1841

  • San Jose, California (PRWEB) February 15, 2010 -- Lime, usually referred to as quicklime, is a derivative of limestone.

    The Earth Times Online Newspaper 2010

  • A proven and inexpensive dusting preparation for maize cobs stored in their husks is quicklime which is distributed evenly in a fine coat over the stored products.

    Chapter 5 1994

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  • I like the last sentence: "It is most largely used in making mortar and cement, but has numberless other uses in the arts." Something about that "numberless" appeals to me.

    August 2, 2011