Brackish

English

Etymology

Dutch brak

Adjective

Brackish (comparative more Brackish, superlative most Brackish)

1. (of water) salty or slightly salty, as a mixture of fresh and sea water, such as that found in estuaries
   • 1638 Herbert, Sir Thomas Some years travels into divers parts of Asia and Afrique

     ...by a low courſe and too long ſporting with the briny Ocean it taſts brackiſh and inſalubrious...

   • 1992, Joyce Carol Oates, Black Water, Penguin Books, paperback edition, page 4.

     On all sides a powerful brackish marshland odor, the odor of damp, and decay, and black earth, black water.

   • 2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, Random House.

     The water we took on at Chatham Isle is now brackish & without a dash of brandy in it, my stomach rebels.

2. distasteful; unpleasant; not appealing to the taste.
3. repulsive

Derived terms

• brackishness

Thesaurus

bad, barfy, briny, cloying, fetid, foul, fulsome, high, icky, maggoty, mawkish, nasty, nauseant, nauseating, nauseous, noisome, noxious, offensive, overripe, pickled, poisonous, rancid, rank, rebarbative, rotten, saline, salt, salted, saltish, salty, sickening, spoiled, stinking, vile, vomity, weevily, yucky

Translations

slightly salty

Bulgarian: леко солен (bg) Finnish: murto- French: saumâtre (fr) m. and f.

Italian: salmastra (it) Manx: sailjey (gv) Spanish: salado (es)

distasteful; unpleasant; not appealing to the taste

repulsive