The Collaborative International Dictionary
Nitrohydrochloric \Ni`tro*hy`dro*chlo"ric\, a. [Nitro- + hydrochloric.] (Chem.) Of, pertaining to, or containing, nitric and hydrochloric acids.
Nitrohydrochloric acid, a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids, usually in the proportion of one part of the former to three of the latter, and remarkable for its solvent action on gold and platinum; -- called also aqua regia, and nitromuriatic acid.
Wiktionary
n. (context inorganic chemistry English) A mixture of three parts concentrated hydrochloric acid to one part concentrated nitric acid.
WordNet
n. a yellow fuming corrosive mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid that dissolves metals (including gold) [syn: nitrohydrochloric acid]
Wikipedia
Aqua regia (Latin, lit. "royal water" or "king's water") is a mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid, optimally in a molar ratio of 1:3. Aqua regia is a yellow-orange fuming liquid. Aqua regia was so named by alchemists because it can dissolve the noble metals gold and platinum. However, aqua regia does not dissolve or corrode silver, titanium, iridium, ruthenium, rhenium, tantalum, niobium, hafnium, osmium, or rhodium.
Usage examples of "aqua regia".
He had dabbled in alchemistic experiments himself, making distillations, aqua regia, aqua fortris, and iron vitriol.
The jar of aqua regia has been capped off now, and a variety of anodes, cathodes, and other working substances are suspended in it, held in place by clamps of hammered gold.
And yet when they are combined they form an Emergent called aqua regia, which does consume the noble metals.
But Aureliano spent the money on muriatic acid to prepare some aqua regia and he beautified the keys by plating them with gold.
Only when he was working on his second glass did he remember to offer me some of this potable aqua regia.
Ercole binds his hands and feet with scarlet silk cords, lets him know who it is he's run afoul of, reaches into the box with a pair of pincers, tears out Domenico's tongue, stabs him a couple times, pours into the box a beaker of aqua regia, enumerates a list of other goodies, including castration, that Domenico will undergo before he's allowed to die, all amid screams, tongueless attempts to pray, agonized struggles from the victim.