(|)trī|methə̇l+ noun
Etymology: International Scientific Vocabulary trimethyl + amine
: an irritating gaseous or volatile liquid tertiary amine (CH 3 ) 3 N that has a fishy odor, that is only slightly more basic than ammonia, that is flammable and forms explosive mixtures with air, that is formed as a degradation product of many nitrogenous animal and plant substances (as in herring brine and the distillate of sugar-beet residues), that is made commercially by catalytic reaction of methanol and ammonia at high temperature, and that is used chiefly in making choline and other quaternary ammonium compounds