Word.ws English Dictionary

sweet spirits of nitre

sweet spirits of nitre noun: an old-fashioned remedy, having ethyl nitrite as a main ingredient, that used to be available as an over the counter drug.

Noun

sweet spirits of nitre (uncountable)

  1. (pharmacy) An old-fashioned remedy, having ethyl nitrite as a main ingredient, that used to be available as an over the counter drug.
    • In cases of fever a teaspoonful of sweet spirits of nitre in a glass of water taken in small sips at short intervals is most excellent.1887, Estelle Mendell, “The Family Medicine Chest”, Good Housekeeping vol. 5, page 62
    • The Food and Drug Administration says it is ordering an old-fashioned remedy, sweet spirits of nitre, off the over-the-counter market because it can be fatal to infants and because of a lack of proved effectiveness.1980, “F.D.A. Bans Sweet Spirits of Nitre As Ineffective and Possibly Fatal“, The New York Times, October 12, 1980, page 65

Forms of sweet spirits of nitre

alternative formsweet spirit of nitre

Questions about sweet spirits of nitre

What does sweet spirits of nitre mean?
Sweet spirits of nitre means an old-fashioned remedy, having ethyl nitrite as a main ingredient, that used to be available as an over the counter drug.
What part of speech is sweet spirits of nitre?
Sweet spirits of nitre is a noun.

Words near sweet spirits of nitre in the dictionary

  1. sweet sixteens
  2. sweet smell of success
  3. sweet smelling
  4. sweet sorghum
  5. sweet sorghums
  6. sweet spirits of nitre
  7. sweet spot
  8. sweet spots
  9. sweet stuff
  10. sweet stuffs
  11. sweet summer child

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sweet spirits of nitre (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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