The Collaborative International Dictionary
Phosphorous \Phos"phor*ous\ (f[o^]s"f[o^]r*[u^]s), a. [Cf. F. phosphoreux.] (Chem.) Of or pertaining to phosphorus; resembling or containing phosphorus; specifically, designating those compounds in which phosphorus has a lower valence as contrasted with phosphoric compounds; as, phosphorous acid, H3PO3.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1777, "phosphorescent," from phosphorus + -ous. The chemical sense (1794) is immediately from French phosphoreux.
Wiktionary
a. 1 (context chemistry English) Of or pertaining to phosphorus. 2 Resembling phosphorus. 3 (context chemistry English) Of relating to or containing trivalent phosphorus.
WordNet
adj. containing or characteristic of phosphorus; "phosphoric acid" [syn: phosphoric]
Wikipedia
Phosphorous can refer to:
- Phosphorous acid
- Phosphorous anhydride, see phosphorus trioxide
Usage examples of "phosphorous".
I had flame: the few phosphorous matches my jailers had left me, but what was there that would burn bright enough to take me up?
All that was left for me to procure was a store of candles, some phosphorous matches, ink, and pens.
Fire burned below, thrown everywhere, phosphorous eating through the lining of lead shielding that covered the hot material.
Through the ports, they could see blue phosphorous clouds begin to thin out.
A few minutes later Flower looked back over her shoulder and saw the flatboat slip through the cypress trees into a layer of moonlit fog that reminded her of the phosphorous glow given off by a grave.
He pulled the pins on both, and threw the fragger first, then the white phosphorous grenade.
It was a substance which has the chemical property for glowing, like phosphorous, and which is also magnetic, in that it will cling to any metal, providing that metal is not nonmagnetic.
It may well be -- I have believed so ever since I was fourteen years old -- that the elements are all isomers, differentiated by geometrical structure, electrical charge, or otherwise in precisely the same way as ozone from oxygen, red from yellow phosphorous, dextrose from ~laevulose, and a paraffin from a benzene of identical empirical formula.
The bones of cholla that glowed there in their incandescent basketry pulsed like burning holothurians in the phosphorous dark of the sea's deeps.
The material components of this spell are a pinch of saltpeter, a pinch of iron filings, a piece of phosphorous, and a pinch of ashes.
So while Joshua read scrolls and books, I spent my time mixing quicksilver and lead, phosphorous and brimstone, charcoal and philosopher's stone, trying somehow to divine the nature of the Tao.
Michael clearly heard the clatter of his Vickers and saw the streaking phosphorous trails of the incendiary bullets, lacing through the icy dawn air, joining the balloon and the racing green aircraft for fleeting seconds.