I. ˈlīm noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English lim, from Old English līm; akin to Old High German līm birdlime, Old Norse līm lime (calcium oxide), Latin lima file, linere to smear, levis smooth, Greek leios smooth, Late Greek leimak-, leimax slug, Russian slina saliva, Sanskrit layate he clings, sticks
1. : birdlime
2.
a. : a caustic highly infusible solid that consists essentially of calcium oxide often together with magnesia, that is obtained usually in the form of white to grayish lumps or pebbles by calcining limestone, seashells (as oyster or conch shells), coral, or other forms of calcium carbonate, and that is used chiefly in building (as in mortar, plaster, and brick), in agriculture, in metallurgy, in the chemical and related industries, and in the treatment of water, sewage, and trade wastes — called also burnt lime, caustic lime, quicklime
b. : hydrated lime
c. : hydraulic lime
d. : calcium — not used systematically
lime nitrate
carbonate of lime
3. : limestone or other form of calcium carbonate with or without magnesium carbonate
4.
a. : a pit or the liquid it contains in which skins are limed
b. : the process of liming in leather manufacturing
II. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: Middle English limen, from Old English -līman; akin to Old High German līmen to cement, Old Norse līma; denominative from the root of English lime (I)
1. archaic : to bind together : cement
who gave his blood to lime the stones together — Shakespeare
2. : to smear with a sticky substance (as birdlime)
would have found twigs limed for him — Sir Walter Scott
3. : to entangle or catch with or as if with birdlime
birds are limed with the sticky sap of wild fig trees smeared on splinters of bamboo — C.D.Forde
limed soul … struggling to be free — Shakespeare
4.
a. : to coat with a solution of lime and water : whitewash
their gaudy-hued houses and limed picket fences — Time
b. : to apply ground limestone or other forms of lime to (land) : fertilize with lime
can lime it, cross-plow it, manure it — F.D.Roosevelt
c. : to treat with lime: as
(1) : to steep in a lime solution in order to remove hair (as in tanning) or to dissolve proteins (as in glue-making)
(2) : to add lime to in order to precipitate impurities
d. : to coat (as the inside of water pipes) with calcareous scale
hard water limes pipes
III. adjective
Etymology: lime (I)
: of, relating to, or containing lime or limestone
IV. intransitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: probably alteration of line (VI)
archaic : copulate
how the raging lion is to lime with the yearning unicorn — W.H.Auden
V. noun
( -s )
Etymology: alteration of earlier line, from lind — more at lind
: linden 1a
VI. noun
( -s )
Etymology: French, lime (the fruit), from Provençal limo, from Arabic līm
1. : a spiny tropical tree ( Citrus aurantifolia ) with elliptic oblong narrowly winged leaves
2. : the small globose fruit of the lime that is greenish yellow when ripe and has a very acid pulp that yields a juice used as a flavoring agent and as a source of ascorbic acid — compare lemon
3. or lime yellow : a grayish to moderate yellow — called also fustic, old fustic