silver nitrate: Meaning and Definition of

sil'ver ni'trate

1. a white, crystalline, water-soluble, bitter, corrosive, poisonous powder, AgNO, produced by the reaction of silver and dilute nitric acid: used chiefly in the manufacture of photographic emulsions and mirrors, as a laboratory reagent, and in medicine as an antiseptic, astringent, and in the routine prophylaxis of ophthalmia neonatorum.