Lime

What “Lime” means

Noun

1. Any inorganic material containing calcium, usually calcium oxide (quicklime) or calcium hydroxide (slaked lime).
2. Any gluey or adhesive substance that traps or captures; sometimes a synonym for birdlime.
3. A limelight; any spotlight.

Verb

1. To treat with calcium hydroxide or calcium oxide (lime).
2. To smear with birdlime.
3. To smear with birdlime.
4. To apply limewash.

Noun

1. A deciduous tree of the genus Tilia, especially Tilia × europaea; the linden tree.
2. The wood of this tree.

Noun

1. Any of several green citrus fruit, somewhat smaller and sharper-tasting than a lemon.
2. Any of the trees that bear limes, especially Key lime, Citrus aurantiifolia.
3. Any of several brilliant, sometimes yellowish, green colours associated with the fruits of a lime tree.
4. Any of several brilliant, sometimes yellowish, green colours associated with the fruits of a lime tree.
5. A fan fiction story which contains sexual references, but stops short of full, explicit descriptions of sexual activity (coined by analogy with lemon).

Where the word comes from

From Middle English lyme, lym, lime, from Old English līm, from Proto-West Germanic *līm, from Proto-Germanic *līmaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂leyH- (“to smear”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Liem (“glue”), Dutch lijm (“glue”), German Leim (“glue”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish lim (“glue”), Faroese and Icelandic lím (“glue”), Latin limus (“mud”).

Lime (17th c.) and line (16th c.) are alterations of obsolete lind, from Middle English lynde, from Old English lind, from Proto-Germanic *lindijō. The phonetic development is unusual, but it has been suggested that it began in compounds (loss of -d- perhaps before tree, the change to -m- before labials as in bark or wood). Doublet of linden, which see.

Borrowed from French lime, from Spanish lima, from Arabic لِيمَة (līma), from Classical Persian لِیمُو (līmū, līmō), from Sanskrit निम्बू (nimbū, “lime”), ultimately from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *limaw or Munda. Doublet of lemon.

Business name ideas with “Lime”

Industries where “Lime” fits

We suggest this word for 2 business types and industries, including:

• Taco Shop
• Lime Manufacturing