gunpowder

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   An explosive mixture of saltpetre (potassium nitrate), charcoal and sulfur; formerly used in gunnery but now mostly used in fireworks.

   They have been a bold, heroic, and purely self dependent nation, never having either courted,—or been subdued by—other Tribes or Europeans. But what early mind—a power—could face gunpowder and the firelocks? Hence their annihilation!

2. 2
   verb

   To destroy with gunpowder.

   […] he was […] never getting into quarrels with his neighbors and gunpowdering them out of house and home. His subjects loved him.

3. 3
   noun

   Idli podi/milagai podi; ground-up dry spices mixed with oil and ghee and served alongside idli or dosa.

   Some restaurants try and give their dosas the "ethnic" touch by slipping along a small dish of mulaga podi-gunpowder mixed with oil as well, but that isn't always enough.

4. 4
   noun

   a mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur in a 75:15:10 ratio which is used in gunnery, time fuses, and fireworks

Possibly due to its smell resembling gunpowder during the British Raj.

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images