salt

salt [sôlt]

n.

[ME < OE sealt, akin to Ger salz < IE base * sal-, salt > L sal, Gr hāls, salt, Sans salila, salty]

1. sodium chloride, NaCl, a white, crystalline substance with a characteristic taste, found in natural beds, in sea water, etc., and used for seasoning and preserving foods, etc.

2. a chemical compound derived from an acid by replacing hydrogen, wholly or partly, with a metal or an electropositive radical: the salt of an -ous acid is usually indicated by the suffix -ite, the salt of an -ic acid by the suffix -ate

3. that which lends a tang or piquancy; esp., sharp pungent humor or wit

4. SALTCELLAR

5. [pl.] any of various mineral salts used as a cathartic, as Epsom salts, or to soften bath water, as a restorative, etc.

6. Informal a sailor, esp. an experienced one

adj.

1. containing salt

2. preserved with salt

3. tasting or smelling of salt

4. Now Rare pungent or biting

5.

a) flooded with salt water

b) growing in salt water

vt.

1. to sprinkle or season with salt

2. to preserve with salt or in a salt solution

3. to provide with salt

4. to treat with salt in chemical processes

5. to season or give a tang to [to salt a speech with wit]

6. to give artificial value to; specif.,

a) to alter (books, prices, etc.) in order to give false value

☆ b) to scatter minerals or ores in (a mine), put oil in (a well), etc. in order to deceive prospective buyers

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above the salt or below the salt

in a more honored (or less honored) position: From the former practice of placing guests at the upper or lower part of a table with a bowl of salt in the middle

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salt away or salt down

1. to pack and preserve with salt

☆ 2. Informal to store or save (money, etc.)

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salt of the earth

[see Matt. 5:13] any person or persons regarded as the finest, noblest, etc.

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salt out

to precipitate or separate (a substance) from its solution by the addition of a soluble salt

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with a grain of salt or with a pinch of salt

[Latinized as cum grano salis] with some doubt, allowance for exaggeration, etc.; skeptically

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worth one's salt

worth one's wages, sustenance, etc.

saltlike

adj.

saltness

n.