salt
(sôlt)
[Middle English, from Old English sealt.]
noun
- 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.
- Any of various mineral salts used as laxatives or cathartics.
- 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.
adjective
- 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.
- Flooded with seawater.
- Found in or near such a flooded area: salt grasses.
transitive verb: 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 verbs
- salt away
- To put aside; save.
- salt out
- To separate (a dissolved substance) by adding salt to the solution.
idioms
- salt of the earth
- A person or group considered as the best or noblest part of society.
- worth (one's) salt
- Efficient and capable.
