The Collaborative International Dictionary
Brine \Brine\, n. [AS. bryne a burning, salt liquor, brine, fr. brinnan, brynnan, to burn. See Burn.]
Water saturated or strongly impregnated with salt; pickle; hence, any strong saline solution; also, the saline residue or strong mother liquor resulting from the evaporation of natural or artificial waters.
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The ocean; the water of an ocean, sea, or salt lake.
Not long beneath the whelming brine . . . he lay.
--Cowper. -
Tears; -- so called from their saltness.
What a deal of brine Hath washed thy sallow cheecks for Rosaline!
--Shak.Brine fly (Zo["o]l.), a fly of the genus Ephydra, the larv[ae] of which live in artificial brines and in salt lakes.
Brine gauge, an instrument for measuring the saltness of a liquid.
Brine pan, a pit or pan of salt water, where salt is formed by cristallization.
Brine pit, a salt spring or well, from which water is taken to be boiled or evaporated for making salt.
Brine pump (Marine Engin.), a pump for changing the water in the boilers, so as to clear them of the brine which collects at the bottom.
Brine shrimp, Brine worm (Zo["o]l.), a phyllopod crustacean of the genus Artemia, inhabiting the strong brines of salt works and natural salt lakes. See Artemia.
Brine spring, a spring of salt water.
Leach brine (Saltmaking), brine which drops from granulated salt in drying, and is preserved to be boiled again.
Wiktionary
n. An aquatic crustacean of the taxonomic order Artemia, one species of which is often marketed under the name Sea-Monkey as a novelty gift.
WordNet
n. common to saline lakes [syn: Artemia salina]
Wikipedia
Artemia is a genus of aquatic crustaceans known as brine shrimp. Artemia, the only genus in the family Artemiidae, has changed little externally since the Triassic period. The historical record of the existence of Artemia dates back to 982 from Urmia Lake, Iran, although the first unambiguous record is the report and drawings made by Schlösser in 1757 of animals from Lymington, England. Artemia populations are found worldwide in inland saltwater lakes, but not in oceans. Artemia are able to avoid cohabiting with most types of predators, such as fish, by their ability to live in waters of very high salinity (up to 25%).
The ability of the Artemia to produce dormant eggs, known as cysts, has led to extensive use of Artemia in aquaculture. The cysts may be stored for long periods and hatched on demand to provide a convenient form of live feed for larval fish and crustaceans. Nauplii of the brine shrimp Artemia constitute the most widely used food item, and over 2000 tonnes of dry Artemia cysts are marketed worldwide annually. In addition, the resilience of Artemia makes them ideal animals for running biological toxicity assays and it has become a model organism used to test the toxicity of chemicals. Breeds of Artemia are sold as novelty gifts under the marketing name Sea-Monkeys or Aqua Dragons.
Usage examples of "brine shrimp".
Small puddles remained in the drying lake, alkaline mirrors that swarmed with transplanted brine shrimp.
The brine shrimp and the algae and a few other hardy aquatic forms would thrive until the waters drained and evaporated away, leaving fresh eggs and spores entombed in the sediment to await the next Hundred-Year Storm.
For a hundred years, the eggs of the brine shrimp and the spores of minute algae had waited for rain.
To my left was Mono Lake, shrinking at the rate of two feet a year, increasingly saline, supporting little in the way of marine life beyond brine shrimp and the attendant feasting of the birds.
He sprinkled flakes from a plastic container, grinding them between thumb and forefinger as experts had advised him to do it, and watched the multi-colored granules of fish meal, roe, milt, brine shrimp, day-fly eggs, oatflour and egg yolk ride on the surface for a moment before the detestable fish-face came snapping to the top to suck them down.
Ground beef heart and baby brine shrimp mixed up in here with the pickled ginger and sun dried tomatoes, he's got bloodworms and crabmeat and medicines for their parasite bacteria and fungus problems right in with the feta cheese and that Ponentine olive spread that cost God knows how much and what's that on the shelf over the sink, that plastic cup that says cole slaw there's something floating in it, will you throw it out?
Bits of seaweed floated in the water and brine shrimp, attracted by the light, jerked and played just below the surface.
The small pixy started to glow, which attracted the brine shrimp, and Jax had a fit of delight when they bounced closer.
A red circle enclosed it and Cassandra zoomed in to show something that looked like a brine shrimp larva skittering across a pond.