sinter

From German Sinter. Doublet of cinder.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪntə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪntəɹ/
• Rhymes: -ɪntə(ɹ)

sinter (plural sinters)

1. (geology) An alluvial sediment deposited by a mineral spring.
   • 1883 June, John Magens Mello, “Quartz: its Varieties and Formation”, in Popular Science Monthly, volume 23:

     That water at a high temperature can hold quartz in solution is well illustrated by the deposits of silicious sinter, thrown down by thermal springs,

   • 1913, David Paul Gooding, chapter V, in Picturesque New Zealand:

     It has steaming lakes, pools, and streams, healing baths and springs, acidulous basins of emerald, opal, and orange, and tinted terraces of sinter.

2. A mass formed by sintering.
   • 2008, John Banhart, Advanced Tomographic Methods in Materials Research and Engineering, page 55:

     Consider a copper sinter material with spherical sinter particles in an early stage of the sintering process, see Fig. 3.5(a).

3. A mixture of iron ore and fluxes added to a blast furnace.
   • 1962 December, “Railways and the Spencer Steelworks”, in Modern Railways, page 410:

     A combination of fully and partly automatic working provides speed, efficiency and manpower economy in unloading coal, home ore, foreign ore and coke and concentrates from incoming wagons and loading outgoing wagons for despatch to the company's Ebbw works with export ore and sinter.

sinter (third-person singular simple present sinters, present participle sintering, simple past and past participle sintered)

1. To heat a compacted powder mass to form a hardened mass.
   • 1980, “Advanced Automation for Space Missions: Appendix 4C”, in Proceedings of the 1980 NASA/ASEE Summer Study:

     Most, if not all, metals may be sintered.

   • 2010, Kate McKinnon, Sculptural Metal Clay Jewelry: Techniques and Explorations, Loveland, Colo.: Interweave Press, →ISBN, page 27:

     A properly made, fully sintered and fully annealed metal clay piece should be able to stand up to any traditional metalsmithing technique.

• “sinter”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

• inerts, estrin, Strine, Stiner, retins, nitres, inters, Tiners, niters, Estrin, trines, insert, Insert, Trines, terins, triens

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sinter

1. inflection of sintern:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. singular imperative