brackish

adjective brack·ish \ ˈbra-kish \

Updated on: 26 Apr 2018

Definition of brackish

1 : somewhat salty

brackish water

2 a : not appealing to the taste

brackish tea

b : repulsive

a brackish personality

—

brackishness

noun

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Examples of brackish in a Sentence

the office coffee is often some brackish brew that's been sitting around for a couple of hours
the river becomes brackish as we approach the tidemark

Recent Examples of brackish from the Web

The clean, fresh water in the Sacramento River also is of much higher quality than the often-brackish waters in the south Delta.

— ryan sabalow and dale kasler, sacbee, "Massive Delta tunnels project took a giant step forward – here’s what you need to know | The Sacramento Bee," 11 Apr. 2018
Coastal flooding turns roads into slush rivers Speaking of water, many coastal locations in New England are battling not only the frozen water falling as snow but also the very cold brackish waters from the bays.

— greg porter, Washington Post, "The 10 best images of this week’s historic ‘bomb cyclone’," 4 Jan. 2018
Dozens of landlocked water districts are turning to briny groundwater basins or brackish rivers and bays, where the process of removing salt from water is generally a lot easier and cheaper.

— kurtis alexander, San Francisco Chronicle, "$10 million coming to Bay Area desalination project — but it’s not on the ocean," 16 Mar. 2018
The bacteria is commonly acquired via salty or brackish waters through four organisms coming into contact with open wounds or cuts.

— the washington post, NOLA.com, "He thought it was just a blister, but it ended with his foot being amputated," 5 Mar. 2018
About two dozen sites, meanwhile, are treating brackish inland supplies, state records show.

— kurtis alexander, San Francisco Chronicle, "$10 million coming to Bay Area desalination project — but it’s not on the ocean," 16 Mar. 2018
These four-inch-long tropical marksmen—sporting a row of handsome black patches down their silvery sides—mostly inhabit brackish waters of estuaries, mangroves and streams from India to the Philippines, Australia and Polynesia.

— jonathan balcombe, Scientific American, "Fishes Use Problem-Solving and Invent Tools," 1 May 2017
Salt or brackish water are common places for infection, the station reported.

— Fox News, "Flesh-eating bacteria results in foot amputation for Texas man," 7 Mar. 2018
Just a few miles outside of Obuasi, the yellow holes filled with brackish water are ubiquitous.

— marisa schwartz taylor, National Geographic, "Illegal Gold Mining Boom Threatens Cocoa Farmers (And Your Chocolate)," 6 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'brackish.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

When the word brackish first appeared in English in the 1500s, it simply meant "salty," as did its Dutch ancestor "brak." Then, as now, brackish water could simply be a mixture of saltwater and freshwater. Since that time, however, "brackish" has developed the additional meanings of "unpalatable" or "distasteful" - presumably because of the undrinkable quality of saltwater. "The brackish water that we drink / Creeps with a loathsome slime, / And the bitter bread they weigh in scales / Is full of chalk and lime." As this use from Oscar Wilde's "Ballad of Reading Gaol" illustrates, brackish water can also include things other than salt that make it unpleasant to drink.