The Collaborative International Dictionary
Hydrocyanic \Hy`dro*cy*an"ic\, a. [Hydro-, 2 + anic: cf. F. hydrocyanique.] (Chem.) Pertaining to, or derived from the combination of, hydrogen and cyanogen.
Hydrocyanic acid (Chem.), a colorless, mobile, volatile liquid, HCN, having a characteristic peach-blossom odor. It is one of the most deadly poisons. It is made by the action of sulphuric acid on yellow prussiate of potassium (potassium ferrocyanide), and chemically resembles hydrochloric and hydrobromic acids. Called also prussic acid, hydrogen cyanide, etc.
Wiktionary
n. (context inorganic compound English) A colourless, very poisonous, volatile liquid, HCN, used in the production of dyes, plastics and fumigants; it dissolves in water to form hydrocyanic acid and reacts with bases to form cyanides, and with some organic compounds to form nitriles.
WordNet
n. a highly poisonous gas or volatile liquid that smells like bitter almonds; becomes a gas at around 90 degree fahrenheit and is most dangerous when inhaled; the anhydride of hydrocyanic acid; used in manufacturing
Wikipedia
Hydrogen cyanide (HCN), sometimes called prussic acid, is an organic compound with the chemical formula HCN. It is a colorless, extremely poisonous and flammable liquid that boils slightly above room temperature, at . HCN is produced on an industrial scale and is a highly valuable precursor to many chemical compounds ranging from polymers to pharmaceuticals.
Usage examples of "hydrogen cyanide".
The gas contained in the cylinder is five per cent hydrogen cyanide, the remainder oxygen.
Undoubtedly, this type of protein has developed through millions of years of evolution on a world which has a few tenths of a per cent of hydrogen cyanide occurring naturally in the atmosphere.
Your people are the only ones which find hydrogen cyanide poisonous.
As far as I knew, all of the gas giants that humanity had encountered were made up of unfriendly gases -- methane, ammonia, helium, carbon monoxide, phosphine, hydrogen cyanide, other nasties, with trace amounts of water.
If he could somehow breach this bubble - even if the temperatures outside were tolerable - the air of this new Titan was surely toxic, laced with hydrogen cyanide and ammonia.
Fruits of the rose family -- including cherries, apples, plums, almonds, peaches, apricots, and crabapples -- contain in their seeds substances known as cyanogenetic glycosides, which on ingestion release hydrogen cyanide gas through an enzymatic reaction.
The best known nitrile is HCN, hydrogen cyanide, a deadly gas for humans.
But hydrogen cyanide is implicated in the steps that on Earth led to the origin of life.
Anyhow, he decided, if I instigated it and it backfired, one can imagine where I'd be: in Protective Custody in Eastern General Gouvernement, if not in a chamber being squirted with Zyklon B hydrogen cyanide gas.
But we also produce enough barium to kill one hundred billion people, enough ammonia and hydrogen cyanide to kill six trillion, enough phosgene to kill twenty trillion, and enough chlorine to kill four hundred trillion.
We'll pump gas into the network, using a proprietary powder that produces hydrogen cyanide gas when it comes into contact with damp soil or damp air.