subacidadj.n.

1669 W. Simpson Hydrologia Chymica 328 It weeps forth a sub-acid liquor in great abundance.

1682 N. Grew Exper. Luctation ii. ii. §19 in Anat. Plants 244 Mercury, with Oyl of Vitriol, will not stir, nor with Oyl of Sulphur. But with Spirit of Nitre presently boyls up. Hence Mercury is a subacid Metal.

1725 R. Bradley Chomel's Dictionaire Œconomique at Sallet The sub-acid Orange, sharpens the Appetite.

1732 J. Arbuthnot Pract. Rules of Diet i. 248 All Fruits which contain a subacid essential Salt.

1836 W. S. Landor Pericles & Aspasia I. 166 He enjoys a little wine after dinner, preferring the lighter and subacid.

1891 ‘S. C. Scrivener’ Our Fields & Cities 150 The food of the human being cannot be ‘suitable’ unless varied by sub-acid substances of some kind.

1938 Amer. Fern Jrnl. 28 128 It grows in dry crevices of granite and sandstone, in subacid soil.

2008 Daily Mail (Nexis) 5 June 35 Fruits have tender flesh with a sweet, subacid, slightly aromatic flavour.

1760 L. Sterne in London Mag. Feb. 112/2 In the little ebullitions of this subacid humour toward others..he would feel more pain..than what he ever gave.

1811 Edinb. Rev. Feb. 399 A stern subacid Dissenter.

1876 W. C. Russell Is he Man? II. 203 A hard, subacid expression..modified the character of her beauty.

1960 Times 14 Oct. 18/7 Miss Moira Redmond..made a takingly crisp and sub-acid side-kick.

1985 Newsweek (Nexis) 25 Feb. 87A It is..suffused with a pleasing, subacid wit.

2008 J. Reese Dracula Dossier (2009) 75 She..was always..ready with some subacid comment.

1684 J. Browne Adenochoiradelogia Pref. sig. (a)5 In the next Office we find Natures varieties of Fermentative Menstruums, Salts, and separating Juices, daily used in our Bodies, and these do bear the names of Acids, Subacids, Salines, Acreds [etc.].

1771 W. Grant Enq. Nature, Rise, & Progress Fevers 259 A vomit, subacids, neutral salts.

1836 R. Dunglison Gen. Therapeutics v. 468 Acids and subacids are always grateful in febrile infections, and by proving agreeable to the palate they may tend to allay irritation.

1884 Harper's Mag. July 241/1 The subacid of the strawberry.

1891 ‘S. C. Scrivener’ Our Fields & Cities 150 Sub-acids in their most convenient form cannot be put into a pill box.

1900 H. Maxwell Mem. Months 2nd Ser. 263 Refresh yourselves with the delicious subacid of the wild plant.

1968 Jrnl.-Tribune (Marysville, Ohio) 3 July 8/4 (advt.) Pickett Cherry Farm is now picking sweet cherries and will start sub-acids June 30.

2009 C. Brantley Perfect Fruit ii. 19 The French tend to like a more acidic piece of fruit... In Asia you generally find that they like the sub-acids, the ones that don't have as much of that tartness.

1785 A. Seward Let. 7 June (1811) I. 75 That tetchy unprovoked spleen..clouding and staining the lustre of fine talents, and many excellent qualities... Let us all take warning, and correct our acids and sub-acids of every sort.

1838 G. Ticknor Jrnl. 25 Mar. in G. S. Hillard Life, Lett., & Jrnls. (1876) II. viii. 145 Rogers..talked in his quiet way.., showing sometimes a little sub-acid.

1840 T. Hood Up Rhine 181 You will perceive a little sub-acid in Markham's statements.

1902 ‘H. Mathers’ Honey xiv. 183 That subacid in her voice that she kept exclusively for the people she disliked.

1975 J. I. M. Stewart Young Pattullo (1976) x. 227 I was..unused to the sub-acid as a conversational mode.

1808 W. H. Wollaston in Philos. Trans. Royal Soc. 98 96 Other instances of super-acid and sub-acid salts.

1855 J. Scoffern in Orr's Circle Sci.: Elem. Chem. 38 With regard to neutral and superacid, or subacid, salts.

1904 I. Freund Study Chem. Composition vi. 159 The names of sub-acid and super-acid salts expressed the fact that the observed differences between these were due to the presence of a relatively lesser or greater amount of acid.

2002 J. S. Fruton Methods & Styles Devel. Chem. iv. 52 The theory had received experimental support from the work..of William Hyde Wollaston on superacid and subacid salts, and of Thomas Thomson on oxalates.