• Salt

    Pronunciation

    • UK IPA: /sÉ’lt/
    • US IPA: /sÉ”lt/, /sÉ‘lt/
    • Rhymes: -É’lt

    Origin

    From Old English sealt, from Proto-Germanic *saltą (compare Dutch zout, German Salz, Swedish salt), from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂l- (compare French sel, Welsh halen, Old Irish salann, Latin sal, Russian соль, Ancient Greek ἅλς, Albanian ngjelmë ("salty, savory"), Old Armenian աղ, Tocharian A sāle, Sanskrit सलिल).

    Full definition of salt

    Noun

    salt

    (plural salts)
    1. A common substance, chemically consisting mainly of sodium chloride (NaCl), used extensively as a condiment and preservative.
    2. (chemistry) One of the compounds formed from the reaction of an acid with a base, where a positive ion replaces a hydrogen of the acid.
    3. (uncommon) A salt marsh, a saline marsh at the shore of a sea.
    4. (slang) A sailor also old salt.
      • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet LetterAround the door are generally to be seen, laughing and gossiping, clusters of old salts.
      • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick,I never go as a passenger; nor, though I am something of a salt, do I ever go to sea as a Commodore, or a Captain, or a Cook.
    5. (cryptography) Randomly chosen bytes added to a plaintext message prior to encrypting it, in order to render brute-force decryption more difficult.
    6. A person who seeks employment at a company in order to (once employed by it) help unionize it.
    7. (obsolete) flavour; taste; seasoning
      • ShakespeareThough we are justices and doctors and churchmen ... we have some salt of our youth in us.
    8. (obsolete) piquancy; wit; senseAttic salt
    9. (obsolete) A dish for salt at table; a salt cellar.
      • Samuel PepysI out and bought some things; among others, a dozen of silver salts.
    10. (figurative) That which preserves from corruption or error, or purifies; a corrective; an antiseptic; also, an allowance or deduction.His statements must be taken with a grain of salt.
      • Bible, Matthew v. 13Ye are the salt of the earth.

    Derived terms

    terms derived from salt

    Related terms

    Adjective

    salt

    1. Salty; salted.
      salt beef;  salt tears
      • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 8, Philander went into the next room...and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm. Then he put the coffee pot on the stove and rummaged out a loaf of dry bread and some hardtack.
    2. Saline.
      a salt marsh;  salt grass
    3. (figurative, obsolete) Bitter; sharp; pungent.
    4. (figurative, obsolete) Salacious; lecherous; lustful.

    Verb

    1. (transitive) To add salt to.to salt fish, beef, or pork
    2. (intransitive) To deposit salt as a saline solution.The brine begins to salt.
    3. (mining) To blast gold into as a portion of a mine in order to cause to appear to be a productive seam.
    4. (cryptography) To add filler bytes before encrypting, in order to make brute-force decryption more resource-intensive.
    5. To include colorful language in.
    6. To insert or inject something into an object to give it properties it would not naturally have.
    7. (archaeology) To add bogus evidence to an archeological site.
    8. To fill with salt between the timbers and planks, as a ship, for the preservation of the timber.

    Antonyms

    Derived terms

    Anagrams

    © Wiktionary
    • © 2013 - 2023 All Rights Reserved