{ Ni″ter, Ni″tre } (?), n. [F. nitre, L. nitrum native soda, natron, Gr. �; cf. Ar. nitūn, natrūn natron. Cf. Natron.] 1. (Chem.) A white crystalline semitransparent salt; potassium nitrate; saltpeter. See Saltpeter.
2. (Chem.) Native sodium carbonate; natron.
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.