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salt

1 [sawlt]

Use salt in a Sentence

–noun

1.	a crystalline compound, sodium chloride, NaCl, occurring as a mineral, a constituent of seawater, etc., and used for seasoning food, as a preservative, etc.

2.	table salt mixed with a particular herb or seasoning for which it is named: garlic salt; celery salt.

3.	Chemistry. any of a class of compounds formed by the replacement of one or more hydrogen atoms of an acid with elements or groups, which are composed of anions and cations, and which usually ionize in solution; a product formed by the neutralization of an acid by a base.

4.	salts, any of various salts used as purgatives, as Epsom salts.

5.	an element that gives liveliness, piquancy, or pungency: Anecdotes are the salt of his narrative.

6.	wit; pungency.

7.	a small, usually open dish, as of silver or glass, used on the table for holding salt.

8.	Informal. a sailor, esp. an old or experienced one.

–verb (used with object)

9.	to season with salt.

10.	to cure, preserve, or treat with salt.

11.	to furnish with salt: to salt cattle.

12.	to treat with common salt or with any chemical salt.

13.	to spread salt, esp. rock salt, on so as to melt snow or ice: The highway department salted the roads after the storm.

14.	to introduce rich ore or other valuable matter fraudulently into (a mine, the ground, a mineral sample, etc.) to create a false impression of value.

15.	to add interest or excitement to: a novel salted with witty dialogue.

–adjective

16.	containing salt; having the taste of salt: salt water.

17.	cured or preserved with salt: salt cod.

18.	inundated by or growing in salt water: salt marsh.

19.	producing the one of the four basic taste sensations that is not sweet, sour, or bitter.

20.	pungent or sharp: salt speech.

—Verb phrases

21.

salt away,

a.	Also, salt down. to preserve by adding quantities of salt to, as meat.

b.	Informal. to keep in reserve; store away; save: to salt away most of one's earnings.

22.	salt out, to separate (a dissolved substance) from a solution by the addition of a salt, esp. common salt.

—Idioms

23.	with a grain of salt, with reserve or allowance; with an attitude of skepticism: Diplomats took the reports of an impending crisis with a grain of salt.

24.	worth one's salt, deserving of one's wages or salary: We couldn't find an assistant worth her salt.

Origin:
bef. 900; (n. and adj.) ME; OE sealt; c. G Salz, ON, Goth salt; akin to L sāl, Gk háls (see halo- ); (v.) ME salten, OE s(e)altan; cf. OHG salzan, ON salta, D zouten; see salary

Related forms:

saltlike, adjective

Synonyms:
5. flavor, savor. 8. See sailor.

salt

2 [sawlt]

–adjective Obsolete.

lustful; lecherous.

Origin:
1535–45; aph. var. of assaut, ME a sawt < MF a saut on the jump; saut < L saltus a jump, equiv. to sal(īre) to jump + -tus suffix of v. action

SALT

[sawlt]

–noun

Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.

SALT I

–noun

See under Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty.

SALT II

–noun

See under Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty.

Salt River

–noun

a river flowing W from E Arizona to the Gila River near Phoenix: Roosevelt Dam. 200 mi. (322 km) long.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To salt

salt (sôlt)

A colorless or white crystalline solid, chiefly sodium chloride, used extensively in ground or granulated form as a food seasoning and preservative. Also called common salt, table salt.
A chemical compound formed by replacing all or part of the hydrogen ions of an acid with metal ions or electropositive radicals.
salts Any of various mineral salts used as laxatives or cathartics.
salts Smelling salts.
Epsom salts. Often used in the plural.
An element that gives flavor or zest.
Sharp lively wit.
Informal A sailor, especially when old or experienced.
A saltcellar.

adj.

Containing or filled with salt: a salt spray; salt tears.
Having a salty taste or smell: breathed the salt air.
Preserved in salt or a salt solution: salt mackerel.
1. Flooded with seawater.
2. Found in or near such a flooded area: salt grasses.

tr.v. salt·ed, salt·ing, salts

To add, treat, season, or sprinkle with salt.
To cure or preserve by treating with salt or a salt solution.
To provide salt for (deer or cattle).
To add zest or liveliness to: salt a lecture with anecdotes.
To give an appearance of value to by fraudulent means, especially to place valuable minerals in (a mine) for the purpose of deceiving.

Phrasal Verb(s):
salt awayTo put aside; save.
salt outTo separate (a dissolved substance) by adding salt to the solution.

Idiom(s):
salt of the earthA person or group considered as the best or noblest part of society.

Idiom(s):
worth (one's) saltEfficient and capable.

[Middle English, from Old English sealt; see sal- in Indo-European roots.]

SALT (sôlt)

abbr. Strategic Arms Limitation Talks

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Salt

Salt\, n. [AS. sealt; akin to OS. & OFries. salt, D. zout, G. salz, Icel., Sw., & Dan. salt, L. sal, Gr. ?, Russ. sole, Ir. & Gael. salann, W. halen, of unknown origin. Cf. Sal, Salad, Salary, Saline, Sauce, Sausage.]

1. The chloride of sodium, a substance used for seasoning food, for the preservation of meat, etc. It is found native in the earth, and is also produced, by evaporation and crystallization, from sea water and other water impregnated with saline particles.

2. Hence, flavor; taste; savor; smack; seasoning.

Though we are justices and doctors and churchmen . . . we have some salt of our youth in us. --Shak.

3. Hence, also, piquancy; wit; sense; as, Attic salt.

4. A dish for salt at table; a saltcellar.

I out and bought some things; among others, a dozen of silver salts. --Pepys.

5. A sailor; -- usually qualified by old. [Colloq.]

Around the door are generally to be seen, laughing and gossiping, clusters of old salts. --Hawthorne.

6. (Chem.) The neutral compound formed by the union of an acid and a base; thus, sulphuric acid and iron form the salt sulphate of iron or green vitriol.

Note: Except in case of ammonium salts, accurately speaking, it is the acid radical which unites with the base or basic radical, with the elimination of hydrogen, of water, or of analogous compounds as side products. In the case of diacid and triacid bases, and of dibasic and tribasic acids, the mutual neutralization may vary in degree, producing respectively basic, neutral, or acid salts. See Phrases below.

7. Fig.: That which preserves from corruption or error; that which purifies; a corrective; an antiseptic; also, an allowance or deduction; as, his statements must be taken with a grain of salt.

Ye are the salt of the earth. --Matt. v. 13.

8. pl. Any mineral salt used as an aperient or cathartic, especially Epsom salts, Rochelle salt, or Glauber's salt.

9. pl. Marshes flooded by the tide. [Prov. Eng.]

Above the salt, Below the salt, phrases which have survived the old custom, in the houses of people of rank, of placing a large saltcellar near the middle of a long table, the places above which were assigned to the guests of distinction, and those below to dependents, inferiors, and poor relations. See Saltfoot.

His fashion is not to take knowledge of him that is beneath him in clothes. He never drinks below the salt. --B. Jonson.

Acid salt (Chem.) (a) A salt derived from an acid which has several replaceable hydrogen atoms which are only partially exchanged for metallic atoms or basic radicals; as, acid potassium sulphate is an acid salt. (b) A salt, whatever its constitution, which merely gives an acid reaction; thus, copper sulphate, which is composed of a strong acid united with a weak base, is an acid salt in this sense, though theoretically it is a neutral salt.

Alkaline salt (Chem.), a salt which gives an alkaline reaction, as sodium carbonate.

Amphid salt (Old Chem.), a salt of the oxy type, formerly regarded as composed of two oxides, an acid and a basic oxide. [Obsolescent]

Basic salt (Chem.) (a) A salt which contains more of the basic constituent than is required to neutralize the acid. (b) An alkaline salt.

Binary salt (Chem.), a salt of the oxy type conveniently regarded as composed of two ingredients (analogously to a haloid salt), viz., a metal and an acid radical.

Double salt (Chem.), a salt regarded as formed by the union of two distinct salts, as common alum, potassium aluminium sulphate. See under Double.

Epsom salts. See in the Vocabulary.

Essential salt (Old Chem.), a salt obtained by crystallizing plant juices.

Ethereal salt. (Chem.) See under Ethereal.

Glauber's salt or salts. See in Vocabulary.

Haloid salt (Chem.), a simple salt of a halogen acid, as sodium chloride.

Microcosmic salt. (Chem.). See under Microcosmic.

Neutral salt. (Chem.) (a) A salt in which the acid and base (in theory) neutralize each other. (b) A salt which gives a neutral reaction.

Oxy salt (Chem.), a salt derived from an oxygen acid.

Per salt (Old Chem.), a salt supposed to be derived from a peroxide base or analogous compound. [Obs.]

Permanent salt, a salt which undergoes no change on exposure to the air.

Proto salt (Chem.), a salt derived from a protoxide base or analogous compound.

Rochelle salt. See under Rochelle.

Salt of amber (Old Chem.), succinic acid.

Salt of colcothar (Old Chem.), green vitriol, or sulphate of iron.

Salt of hartshorn. (Old Chem.) (a) Sal ammoniac, or ammonium chloride. (b) Ammonium carbonate. Cf. Spirit of hartshorn, under Hartshorn.

Salt of lemons. (Chem.) See Salt of sorrel, below.

Salt of Saturn (Old Chem.), sugar of lead; lead acetate; -- the alchemical name of lead being Saturn.

Salt of Seignette. Same as Rochelle salt.

Salt of soda (Old Chem.), sodium carbonate.

Salt of sorrel (Old Chem.), acid potassium oxalate, or potassium quadroxalate, used as a solvent for ink stains; -- so called because found in the sorrel, or Oxalis. Also sometimes inaccurately called salt of lemon.

Salt of tartar (Old Chem.), potassium carbonate; -- so called because formerly made by heating cream of tartar, or potassium tartrate. [Obs.]

Salt of Venus (Old Chem.), blue vitriol; copper sulphate; -- the alchemical name of copper being Venus.

Salt of wisdom. See Alembroth.

Sedative salt (Old Med. Chem.), boric acid.

Sesqui salt (Chem.), a salt derived from a sesquioxide base or analogous compound.

Spirit of salt. (Chem.) See under Spirit.

Sulpho salt (Chem.), a salt analogous to an oxy salt, but containing sulphur in place of oxygen.

Salt

Salt\, a. [Compar. Salter; superl. Saltest.] [AS. sealt, salt. See Salt, n.]

1. Of or relating to salt; abounding in, or containing, salt; prepared or preserved with, or tasting of, salt; salted; as, salt beef; salt water. "Salt tears." --Chaucer.

2. Overflowed with, or growing in, salt water; as, a salt marsh; salt grass.

3. Fig.: Bitter; sharp; pungent.

I have a salt and sorry rheum offends me. --Shak.

4. Fig.: Salacious; lecherous; lustful. --Shak.

Salt acid (Chem.), hydrochloric acid.

Salt block, an apparatus for evaporating brine; a salt factory. --Knight.

Salt bottom, a flat piece of ground covered with saline efflorescences. [Western U.S.] --Bartlett.

Salt cake (Chem.), the white caked mass, consisting of sodium sulphate, which is obtained as the product of the first stage in the manufacture of soda, according to Leblanc's process.

Salt fish. (a) Salted fish, especially cod, haddock, and similar fishes that have been salted and dried for food. (b) A marine fish.

Salt garden, an arrangement for the natural evaporation of sea water for the production of salt, employing large shallow basins excavated near the seashore.

Salt gauge, an instrument used to test the strength of brine; a salimeter.

Salt horse, salted beef. [Slang]

Salt junk, hard salt beef for use at sea. [Slang]

Salt lick. See Lick, n.

Salt marsh, grass land subject to the overflow of salt water.

Salt-marsh caterpillar (Zo["o]l.), an American bombycid moth (Spilosoma acr[ae]a which is very destructive to the salt-marsh grasses and to other crops. Called also woolly bear. See Illust. under Moth, Pupa, and Woolly bear, under Woolly.

Salt-marsh fleabane (Bot.), a strong-scented composite herb (Pluchea camphorata) with rayless purplish heads, growing in salt marshes.

Salt-marsh hen (Zo["o]l.), the clapper rail. See under Rail.

Salt-marsh terrapin (Zo["o]l.), the diamond-back.

Salt mine, a mine where rock salt is obtained.

Salt pan. (a) A large pan used for making salt by evaporation; also, a shallow basin in the ground where salt water is evaporated by the heat of the sun. (b) pl. Salt works.

Salt pit, a pit where salt is obtained or made.

Salt rising, a kind of yeast in which common salt is a principal ingredient. [U.S.]

Salt raker, one who collects salt in natural salt ponds, or inclosures from the sea.

Salt sedative (Chem.), boracic acid. [Obs.]

Salt spring, a spring of salt water.

Salt tree (Bot.), a small leguminous tree (Halimodendron argenteum) growing in the salt plains of the Caspian region and in Siberia.

Salt water, water impregnated with salt, as that of the ocean and of certain seas and lakes; sometimes, also, tears.

Mine eyes are full of tears, I can not see; And yet salt water blinds them not so much But they can see a sort of traitors here. --Shak.

Salt-water sailor, an ocean mariner.

Salt-water tailor. (Zo["o]l.) See Bluefish.

Salt

Salt\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Salted; p. pr. & vb. n. Salting.]

1. To sprinkle, impregnate, or season with salt; to preserve with salt or in brine; to supply with salt; as, to salt fish, beef, or pork; to salt cattle.

2. To fill with salt between the timbers and planks, as a ship, for the preservation of the timber.

To salt a mine, to artfully deposit minerals in a mine in order to deceive purchasers regarding its value. [Cant]

To salt away, To salt down, to prepare with, or pack in, salt for preserving, as meat, eggs, etc.; hence, colloquially, to save, lay up, or invest sagely, as money.

Salt

Salt\, v. i. To deposit salt as a saline solution; as, the brine begins to salt.

Salt

Salt\, n. [L. saltus, fr. salire to leap.] The act of leaping or jumping; a leap. [Obs.] --B. Jonson.

Language Translation for : salt

Spanish: sal,

German: das Salz,

Japanese: 塩

More Translations »

salt

In chemistry, a compound resulting from the combination of an acid and a base, which neutralize each other.

Note: Common table salt is sodium chloride.

salt

n. A tiny bit of near-random data inserted where too much regularity would be undesirable; a data frob (sense 1). For example, the Unix crypt(3) man page mentions that "the salt string is used to perturb the DES algorithm in one of 4096 different ways."

Jargon File 4.2.0
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SALT

Cold War U.S.-U.S.S.R. nuclear weapons negotiations, 1968, acronym for "Strategic Arms Limitation Talks." The last element sometimes also is understood as treaty.

salt (n.)

O.E. sealt (n. and adj.), from P.Gmc. *saltom (cf. O.S., O.N., O.Fris., Goth. salt, Du. zout, Ger. Salz), from PIE *sal- "salt" (cf. Gk. hals (gen. halos) "salt, sea," L. sal, O.C.S. soli, O.Ir. salann, Welsh halen, O.C.S. sali "salt"). Meaning "experienced sailor" is first attested 1840, in ref. to the salinity of the sea. Salt was long regarded as having power to repel spiritual and magical evil. Many metaphoric uses reflect that this was once a rare and important resource, cf. worth one's salt (1830), salt of the earth (O.E., after Matt. v:13). Belief that spilling salt brings bad luck is attested from 16c. To be above (or below) the salt (1597) refers to customs of seating at a long table according to rank or honor, and placing a large salt-cellar in the middle of the dining table. The verb is from O.E. sealtan, from P.Gmc. *salto-. Salt-lick first recorded 1751; salt marsh is O.E. sealtne mersc. Salt-and-pepper "of dark and light color" first recorded 1915. To take something with a grain of salt is from 1647, from Mod.L. cum grano salis. Saltine "salted cracker" is from 1907; salt-water taffy (1894) so called because it originally was sold at seashore resorts, esp. Atlantic City, N.J.

Main Entry: ¹salt
Pronunciation: 'solt
Function: noun
1 a : a crystalline compound NaCl that is the chloride of sodium, is abundant innature, and is used especially to season or preserve food or in industry called also common salt, sodium chloride b : a substance (as washing soda) resembling common salt c : any of numerous compounds that result from replacement of part or all of the acid hydrogen of an acid by a metal or a group acting like a metal : an ionic crystallinecompound
2 salts pl a : a mineral or saline mixture (as Epsom salts) used as an aperient or cathartic b : SMELLING SALTS

Main Entry: ²salt
Function: adjective
1 : SALINE, SALTY
2 : being or inducing the one of the four basic taste sensations that is suggestive of seawater—compare BITTER, SOUR, SWEET

salt (sôlt)
n.

A colorless or white crystalline solid, chiefly sodium chloride, used extensively as a food seasoning and preservative.
A chemical compound replacing all or part of the hydrogen ions of an acid with metal ions or electropositive radicals.
salts Any of various mineral salts, such as magnesium sulfate, sodium sulfate, or potassium sodium tartrate, used as laxatives or cathartics.
salts Smelling salts.
salts Epsom salts.

salt (sôlt) Pronunciation Key

Any of a large class of chemical compounds formed when a positively charged ion (a cation) bonds with a negatively charged ion (an anion), as when a halogen bonds with a metal. Salts are water soluble; when dissolved, the ions are freed from each other, and the electrical conductivity of the water is increased. See more at complex salt , double salt , simple salt.
A colorless or white crystalline salt in which a sodium atom (the cation) is bonded to a chlorine atom (the anion). This salt is found naturally in all animal fluids, in seawater, and in underground deposits (when it is often called halite). It is used widely as a food seasoning and preservative. Also called common salt, sodium chloride, table salt. Chemical formula: NaCl.

SALT
1. Symbolic Assembly Language Trainer. Assembly-like language implemented in BASIC by Kevin Stock, now at Encore in France.
2. Sam And Lincoln Threaded language. A threaded extensible variant of BASIC. "SALT", S.D. Fenster et al, BYTE (Jun 1985) p.147.
[The Jargon File]

salt
A tiny bit of near-random data inserted where too much regularity would be undesirable; a data frob (sense 1). For example, the Unix crypt(3) manual page mentions that "the salt string is used to perturb the DES algorithm in one of 4096 different ways."

Salt

used to season food (Job 6:6), and mixed with the fodder of cattle (Isa. 30:24, "clean;" in marg. of R.V. "salted"). All meat-offerings were seasoned with salt (Lev. 2:13). To eat salt with one is to partake of his hospitality, to derive subsistence from him; and hence he who did so was bound to look after his host's interests (Ezra 4:14, "We have maintenance from the king's palace;" A.V. marg., "We are salted with the salt of the palace;" R.V., "We eat the salt of the palace"). A "covenant of salt" (Num. 18:19; 2 Chr. 13:5) was a covenant of perpetual obligation. New-born children were rubbed with salt (Ezek. 16:4). Disciples are likened unto salt, with reference to its cleansing and preserving uses (Matt. 5:13). When Abimelech took the city of Shechem, he sowed the place with salt, that it might always remain a barren soil (Judg. 9:45). Sir Lyon Playfair argues, on scientific grounds, that under the generic name of "salt," in certain passages, we are to understand petroleum or its residue asphalt. Thus in Gen. 19:26 he would read "pillar of asphalt;" and in Matt. 5:13, instead of "salt," "petroleum," which loses its essence by exposure, as salt does not, and becomes asphalt, with which pavements were made. The Jebel Usdum, to the south of the Dead Sea, is a mountain of rock salt about 7 miles long and from 2 to 3 miles wide and some hundreds of feet high.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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salt

In addition to the idioms beginning with salt, also see back to the salt mines; with a grain of salt.

SALT

Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty

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