diethyl ether di·eth·yl ether (dī-ěth'əl)
n.
A pungent, volatile, highly flammable liquid derived from the distillation of ethyl alcohol with sulfuric acid and widely used as an inhalation anesthetic. Also called ethyl ether, ethyl oxide, sulfuric ether.
| diethyl ether (dī-ěth'əl) See ether. |
well-known anesthetic, commonly called simply ether, an organic compound belonging to a large group of compounds called ethers; its molecular structure consists of two ethyl groups linked through an oxygen atom, as in C2H5OC2H5.