Brine is water with a high concentration of salt dissolved in it. When you dissolve so much salt in water that it tastes intensely salty, you've made brine. People usually use the word for salt water they've made on purpose.

For thousands of years, people have used brine to preserve food. Before refrigerators existed, submerging cucumbers in brine transformed them into pickles that could last for months. The salt in brine prevents bacteria from growing, which helps keep food from spoiling. You'll still find foods preserved in brine today: olives, capers, pickles, and certain cheeses all spend time soaking in salty water.

Brine also appears in cooking. Many cooks soak a turkey or chicken in brine before roasting it, which makes the meat juicier and more flavorful. The process is called brining.

The word can describe any very salty water, whether in a jar of pickles, a cooking pot, or even underground pools of salt water. Some lakes, like the Great Salt Lake in Utah, contain so much salt that they're essentially giant pools of natural brine. You can float more easily in these waters because brine is denser than regular water.