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nds in which nitrogen has a relatively lower valence as contrasted with nitric compounds. Nitrous acid (Chem.), a hypothetical acid of nitrogen HNO2, not known in the free state, but forming a well known series of salts, viz., the nitrites. -- Nitrous oxide. See Laughing gas.

Containing or derived from nitrogen having a lower valence than in nitrous compounds. Hyponitrous acid (Chem.), an unstable nitrogen acid, NOH, whose salts are produced by reduction of the nitrates, although the acid itself is not isolated in the free state except as a solution in water; -- called also nitrosylic acid.…

A salt formed by the combination of azotous, or nitrous, acid with a base; a nitrite. [R.]

: Nitrous; as, azotous acid. [R.]

hesis of carbohydrates occurs in the nitrite bacteria through the oxidation of ammonia to nitrous acid, and in the nitrate bacteria through the conversion of nitrous into nitric acid. -- Chem`o*syn*thet"ic (#), a.

To become more compact; to be reduced into a denser form. Nitrous acid is gaseous at ordinary temperatures, but condenses into a very volatile liquid at the zero of Fahrenheit. H. Spencer.

cid (Chem.), a fatty acid isomeric with oleic acid, and obtained from it by the action of nitrous acid.

A salt of hyponitrous acid.

ed from those acids whose names end in -ous; as, sulphite, from sulphurous; nitrite, from nitrous acid, etc.

so called from its notes, which resemble a shrill laughing. -- Laughing gas (Chem.), hyponitrous oxide, or protoxide of nitrogen; -- so called from the exhilaration and laughing which it sometimes produces when inhaled. It is much used as an anæsthetic agent. -- Laughing goose (Zoöl.), the European white-fronted goos…

nating, a complex organic acid produced as a white crystalline substance by the action of nitrous acid on hydroquinone.

trogen; specifically, designating any one of those compounds in which, as contrasted with nitrous compounds, the element has a higher valence; as, nitric oxide; nitric acid. Nitric acid, a colorless or yellowish liquid obtained by distilling a nitrate with sulphuric acid. It is powerfully corrosive, being a strong acid…

The act or process of oxidizing nitrogen or its compounds so as to form nitrous or nitric acid.

To combine or impregnate with nitrogen; to convert, by oxidation, into nitrous or nitric acid; to subject to, or produce by, nitrification.

A salt of nitrous acid. Amyl nitrite, a yellow oily volatile liquid, used in medicine as a depressant and a vaso-dilator. Its inhalation produces an instantaneous flushing of the face.

See Nitrous.

Nitrous. [Obs.]

by the name bearing it, has a valence lower than that denoted by the termination -ic; as, nitrous, sulphurous, etc., as contrasted with nitric, sulphuric, etc.

To combine with oxygen or with more oxygen; to add oxygen to; as, to oxidize nitrous acid so as to form nitric acid.

portion of oxygen. See Proto-, 2 (b). protoxide of nitrogen, laughing gas, now called hyponitrous oxideNO. See under Laughing.