Definition of "hydrochloric acid" []

• A clear, colorless, fuming, poisonous, highly acidic aqueous solution of hydrogen chloride, HCl, used as a chemical intermediate and in petroleum production, ore reduction, food processing, pickling, and metal cleaning. It is found in the stomach in dilute form. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "This list includes, among many other things, baking soda and vinegar, which together produce carbon dioxide gas, and diluted hydrochloric acid mixed up with sodium sulfide, which makes a stinkazoid rottenegg smell in no time."
• "Volcanic ejecta is penetrated by dozens of toxins – carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrochloric acid – all of which would have been detected in our electronic scans."