Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sulphurous \Sul"phur*ous\, a. [L. sulphurosus, sulfurosus: cf. F. sulfureux.]
Of or pertaining to sulphur.
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(Chem.)
Derived from, or containing, sulphur; specifically, designating those compounds in which the element has a lower valence as contrasted with the sulphuric compounds.
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Having the characteristic odor of sulphur dioxide, or of hydrogen sulphide, or of other sulphur compounds. Sulphurous acid.
Sulphur dioxide. See under Sulphur. [Obs.]
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An acid, H2SO3, not known in the free state except as a solution of sulphur dioxide in water, but forming a well-known series of salts (the sulphites).
Sulphurous anhydride (Chem.), sulphur dioxide. See under Sulphur.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
see sulfurous.
Wiktionary
a. (context chiefly British spelling English) (alternative spelling of sulfurous English)
WordNet
adj. harsh or corrosive in tone; "an acerbic tone piercing otherwise flowery prose"; "a barrage of acid comments"; "her acrid remarks make her many enemies"; "bitter words"; "blistering criticism"; "caustic jokes about political assassination, talk-show hosts and medical ethics"; "a sulfurous denunciation" [syn: acerb, acerbic, acid, acrid, bitter, blistering, caustic, sulfurous, venomous, virulent, vitriolic]
characterized by oppressive heat and humidity; "the summer was sultry and oppressive"; "the stifling atmosphere"; "the sulfurous atmosphere preceding a thunderstorm" [syn: sultry, stifling, sulfurous]
Usage examples of "sulphurous".
If the dishes show a manganese stain, wash them out with a few drops of hydrochloric and sulphurous acids.
If the dish becomes stained during evaporation, take up with a few drops of hydrochloric and sulphurous acids, evaporate, and then treat with carbonate of soda.
The separation is effected by distilling the substance with solution of ferric sulphate, and collecting the vapour in a dilute solution of sulphurous acid or arsenite of soda.
A film of reflected street-lighting shimmered over the whole scene, closing the eyes of modern Cairenes to the wonder of the stars but at the same time creating the hallucination of a fairyland illuminated in greens and reds and blues and sulphurous yellows.
Sign it, Caledon, he commanded, each word propelling gouts of yellow sulphurous smoke from his mouth, like a bad case of spectral halitosis.
Beyond the lake, Bond came on the first of the fumaroles, a sulphurous, bubbling pool of mud that constantly shuddered and spouted up little fountains.
He fought his way across the field, paying no heed to writhing serpents that floated before his face, to jeering luminous ghosts issuing from sulphurous crevices opening on every side, to disembodied eyes swirling about his head, to stampeding vermilions, to tumbling boulders.
The hammer ends split, flew apart, were s cattered, were falling showers of sulphurous yellow and scarlet m eteors.
Sulphurous and Nitrous Foame They found, they mingl'd, and with suttle Art, Concocted and adusted they reduc'd To blackest grain, and into store conveyd: Part hidd'n veins diggd up (nor hath this Earth Entrails unlike) of Mineral and Stone, Whereof to found thir Engins and thir Balls Of missive ruin.
William Wirt insinuated himself into the history of American prose if not of law by a splendid flowery description of Blennerhassett’s Island as a perfect and innocent Eden to which Aaron Burr, the Devil himself, came as the sulphurous tempter of poor Blennerhassett (a monstrous composite of Adam and Eve), deliberately, cruelly changing to Hell a pristine island Paradise.
This murky air and the strong absorption lines of SO2 seem to whisper in my ear that we'll find some plenty hot and plenty sulphurous volcanoes when we find the mountains.
The trunks of these trees were daubed with multi-coloured lichens, sulphurous yellows, burnt oranges and the blues and greens of a summer sea.
At ground level the air was almost still, but in the topmost of the three bands of convection cells, sulphurous winds of over 400 kph buffeted vessels.
Their language, when they foozled, was gently regretful rather than sulphurous.
A sulphurous smoke was curling amid the waves, which boiled like water in a copper.