salt1

[sawlt] /sɔlt/
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, especially 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, especially 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,
  1. Also, salt down. to preserve by adding quantities of salt to, as meat.
  2. 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, especially 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
before 900; (noun and adj.) Middle English; Old English sealt; cognate with German Salz, Old Norse, Gothic salt; akin to Latin sāl, Greek háls (see halo-); (v.) Middle English salten, Old English s(e)altan; compare Old High German salzan, Old Norse salta, Dutch zouten; see salary
Related forms
saltlike, adjective
Synonyms
5. flavor, savor. 8. See sailor.

salt2

[sawlt] /sɔlt/
adjective, Obsolete
1.
lustful; lecherous.
Origin
1535-45; aphetic variant of assaut, Middle English a sawt < Middle French a saut on the jump; saut < Latin saltus a jump, equivalent to sal(īre) to jump + -tus suffix of v. action

SALT

[sawlt] /sɔlt/
noun
1.
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.

SALT I

noun
1.
See under Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.

SALT II

noun
1.
See under Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.
Examples from the web for salt
  • To regain the water, they drink large amounts of seawater and excrete the salt.
  • The married couple is welcomed at the reception place by the parents with bread and salt.
  • Neutralization with a base weaker than the acid results in a weakly acidic salt.
  • When he gives a riddle at the dinner table, his wife tells him just ask for the salt.
  • However, it is generally considered to be not much more toxic than table salt.
British Dictionary definitions for salt

salt

/sɔːlt/
noun
1.
a white powder or colourless crystalline solid, consisting mainly of sodium chloride and used for seasoning and preserving food
2.
(modifier) preserved in, flooded with, containing, or growing in salt or salty water: salt pork, salt marshes
3.
(chem) any of a class of usually crystalline solid compounds that are formed from, or can be regarded as formed from, an acid and a base by replacement of one or more hydrogen atoms in the acid molecules by positive ions from the base
4.
liveliness or pungency: his wit added salt to the discussion
5.
dry or laconic wit
6.
a sailor, esp one who is old and experienced
7.
short for saltcellar
8.
rub salt into someone's wounds, to make someone's pain, shame, etc, even worse
9.
salt of the earth, a person or group of people regarded as the finest of their kind
10.
with a grain of salt, with a pinch of salt, with reservations; sceptically
11.
worth one's salt, efficient; worthy of one's pay
verb (transitive)
12.
to season or preserve with salt
13.
to scatter salt over (an icy road, path, etc) to melt the ice
14.
to add zest to
15.
often foll by down or away. to preserve or cure with salt or saline solution
16.
(chem) to treat with common salt or other chemical salt
17.
to provide (cattle, etc) with salt
18.
to give a false appearance of value to, esp to introduce valuable ore fraudulently into (a mine, sample, etc)
adjective
19.
not sour, sweet, or bitter; salty
20.
(obsolete) rank or lascivious (esp in the phrase a salt wit)
See also salt away, salt out, salts
Derived Forms
saltish, adjective
saltless, adjective
saltlike, adjective
saltness, noun
Word Origin
Old English sealt; related to Old Norse, Gothic salt, German Salz, Lettish sāls, Latin sāl, Greek hals

SALT

/sɔːlt/
noun acronym
1.
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks or Treaty
Word Origin and History for salt
n.

Old English sealt "salt" (n.; also as an adjective, "salty, briny"), from Proto-Germanic *saltom (cf. Old Saxon, Old Norse, Old Frisian, Gothic salt, Dutch zout, German Salz), from PIE *sal- "salt" (cf. Greek hals "salt, sea," Latin sal, Old Church Slavonic soli, Old Irish salann, Welsh halen "salt").

Modern chemistry sense is from 1790. Meaning "experienced sailor" is first attested 1840, in reference 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, e.g. worth one's salt (1830), salt of the earth (Old English, after Matt. v:13). Belief that spilling salt brings bad luck is attested from 16c. To be above (or below) the salt (1590s) 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.

Salt-lick first recorded 1751; salt-marsh is Old English sealtne mersc; salt-shaker is from 1882. Salt-and-pepper "of dark and light color" first recorded 1915. To take something with a grain of salt is from 1640s, from Modern Latin cum grano salis.

v.

Old English sealtan, from Proto-Germanic *salto- (see salt (n.)), and in part from the noun. Related: Salted; salting.

SALT

n.

Cold War U.S.-U.S.S.R. nuclear weapons negotiations, 1968, acronym for Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (which would make SALT talks redundant, but the last element sometimes also is understood as treaty).

salt in Medicine

salt (sôlt)
n.

  1. A colorless or white crystalline solid, chiefly sodium chloride, used extensively as a food seasoning and preservative.

  2. A chemical compound replacing all or part of the hydrogen ions of an acid with metal ions or electropositive radicals.

  3. salts Any of various mineral salts, such as magnesium sulfate, sodium sulfate, or potassium sodium tartrate, used as laxatives or cathartics.

  4. salts Smelling salts.

  5. salts Epsom salts.

salt in Science
salt
(sôlt)

  1. 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.

  2. 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 in Culture

salt definition


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.
Slang definitions & phrases for salt

salt

noun
  1. A sailor, esp an old and seasoned one (1840+)
  2. Heroin in powder form (1960s+ Narcotics)
Related Terms

go pound salt


salt in Technology


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.
[Jargon File]


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."

Related Abbreviations for salt

SALT

  1. Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
  2. Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty
salt in the Bible

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.

Idioms and Phrases with salt

salt

also see: