a.; also 7 alkalin, 8 alcaline. [? a. Fr. alcalin or mod.L. alcalīn-us: see ALKALI and -INE.] Of or pertaining to alkalis; of the nature of an alkali.
1677. W. Harris, trans. Lemery’s Chym., I. ii. (1686), 322. Quicklime … being a substance very Alkalin, the acid points … enter into it with force.
1718. J. Chamberlayne, Relig. Philos., II. xviii. 6. Volatile and Alcaline Salts.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, 289. Acidity … is to be cured by an alkaline Diet.
1743. Lond. & Country Brewer, III. (ed. 2), 218. The alcaline Salt in the Ashes.
1794. J. Hutton, Philos. Light, etc., 210. An alkaline salt saturated with fixed air.
1849. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sc., xxix. 340. By reversing the poles the taste becomes alkaline.
1876. Page, Adv. Text-bk. Geol., iii. 70. The alkalis and alkaline carbonates attack many rocks with great facility.
b. fig.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., 402. A mediating spirit, who endeavoured, by the alkaline smoothness of her own disposition, to neutralize the acidity of theological controversy.
† c. substantively. Obs.
1773. Gentlem. Mag., XLIII. 126. Alkalines cannot be attracted in waters where acids do not abound.
2. Alkaline metals: the metals whose hydroxides are alkalis, viz. potassium, sodium, cæsium, lithium, rubidium, to which is sometimes added the hypothetical ammonium. Alkaline earths: the oxides of calcium, strontium, and barium, which are intermediate in properties between the alkalis and ‘earths’ proper. Hence alkaline-earthy a.
1806. Davy, in Phil. Trans., XCVII. 21. Alkaline or alkaline-earthy bases. Ibid. (1816), in Faraday’s Res., 4. A new point of analogy between the alkalies and the alkaline earths.
1849. Murchison, Siluria, xii. 307. The terrestrial mass contains free alkaline metals.
