Ni"ter, Ni"tre (?), n. [F. nitre, L. nitrum native soda, natron, Gr. ; cf. Ar. nitn, natrn natron. Cf. Natron.]
1. Chem.
A white crystalline semitransparent salt; potassium nitrate; saltpeter. See Saltpeter.
2. Chem.
Native sodium carbonate; natron.
[Obs.]
For though thou wash thee with niter, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me.
Jer. ii. 22.
Cubic niter, a deliquescent salt, sodium nitrate, found as a native incrustation, like niter, in Peru and Chili, whence it is known also as Chili saltpeter. -- Niter bush Bot., a genus (Nitraria) of thorny shrubs bearing edible berries, and growing in the saline plains of Asia and Northern Africa.
© Webster 1913.