Dictionary

bromide en · NOUN

Pronunciation

/ˈbɹoʊ.maɪd/ (US)
/ˈbɹəʊ.maɪd/ (UK)
(Australia) audio
brō'mīd (UK)
brō'mīd (US)
(General-American) audio

Etymology

From brom- + -ide. First used in the sense “dull person” by American artist, art critic, poet, author and humorist Gelett Burgess. Figurative sense ("platitude") by extending the medicating sense through the metaphor of pacifying or placating.

Meanings

A binary compound of bromine and some other element or radical.
A binary compound of bromine and some other element or radical. ▸ Any salt of hydrobromic acid.
The anionic form of a bromine atom.
- “How fortunate Buddha, Mahomed, and Shakespeare were that their kind relations and doctors did not cure them of their ecstasy and their inspiration,” said Kovrin. “If Mahomed had taken bromide for his nerves, had worked only two hours out of the twenty-four, and had drunk milk, that remarkable man would have left no more trace after him than his dog. […]” 1894, Anton Chekhov, translated by Constance Garnett, The Black Monk, published 1917:
(broadly) A dull person with conventional thoughts.
- The bromide conforms to everything sanctioned by the majority, and may be depended upon to be trite, banal, and arbitrary. 1906, Frank Gelett Burgess, Are You A Bromide?:
- My adviser at college was a bromide who had not had an original thought in years.
(broadly) A platitude.
- Gascoigne was annoyed by this. ‘Well, I wish you luck, Mr. Lauderback, in bringing Mr. Carver to justice,’ he said. ‘Spare the bromide,’ Lauderback snapped. ‘Talk to me plain.’ 2013, Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries, London: Granta Books, published 2014, →ISBN, page 569:
- But successive governments have met these mounting challenges with either hard-hearted austerity (from the Conservatives) or bland bromides for change (from Labour). 2026 June 22, Mark Sappenfield, “Starmer is out, but is Britain done with its prime minister churn?”, in The Christian Science Monitor, Boston, Massachusetts: Christian Science Publishing Society, →ISSN, →OCLC:
- We hoped the speech would include reassurances, but instead it was merely one bromide after another.
- Certainly not Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who is clearly the Rupert Murdoch of his generation. He’s always justifying his cowardly choices with vacuous bromides about “free speech,” but he’s obviously just in it for the money — no matter how much his platform is used to destroy our democracy. 2020 June 2, Thomas L. Friedman, “America, We Break It, It’s Gone”, in New York Times:
- No organicist metaphor, no irrelevant bromide that "we are all part of one another," must be permitted to obscure this basic fact. 1974, Murray Newton Rothbard, “What the State Is Not”, in Anatomy of the State:
(dated) A dose of bromide taken as a sedative, or to reduce sexual appetite.
A print made on bromide paper.

Forms

Spelling	Features	Labels	Source
bromides	Number=Plur		lexicographic

Translations (32)

ru бром (dose of bromide taken as a sedative) · sv bromid (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · fi bromidi (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · es bromuro (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · ja 臭化物 (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · te బ్రోమైడు (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · hu bromid (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · pt brometo (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · no bromid (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · gd bròimid (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · it bromuro (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · kk бромид (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · cs bromid (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · fr bromure (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · id bromida (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · es pelmazo (dull person with conventional thoughts) · pl bromek (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · fi tylsimys (dull person with conventional thoughts) · ro bromură (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · nl bromide (dose of bromide taken as a sedative) · mr बोमाइड (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · cmn 溴化物 (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · mr बोमाईड (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · ru броми́д (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · de Bromid (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · cs bróm (dose of bromide taken as a sedative) · tr bromür (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · cs suchar (dull person with conventional thoughts) · ca bromur (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · ky бромид (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · hi दुराघ्रेय (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element) · nl bromide (chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element)

bromide en · NOUN

Pronunciation

Etymology

Meanings

Forms

Antonyms

Coordinates

Deriveds

Hypernyms

Relateds

Synonyms

Translations (32)