salt

noun salts

1. countable, uncountable A common substance, chemically consisting mainly of sodium chloride (NaCl), used extensively as a food ingredient, seasoning, condiment, and preservative. Near-synonyms: table salt, rock salt, road salt

   Similar: common salt, table salt, rock salt, road salt

2. countable, uncountable 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. countable, uncommon A salt marsh, a saline marsh at the shore of a sea.
4. countable, slang A sailor (also old salt). Around the door are generally to be seen, laughing and gossiping, clusters of old salts.
5. countable, uncountable A sequence of random data added to plain text data (such as passwords or messages) prior to encryption or hashing, in order to make brute force decryption more difficult.
6. countable, uncountable A person who seeks employment at a company in order to (once employed by it) help unionize it.
7. obsolete, uncountable Flavour; taste; seasoning. Though we are justices and doctors and churchmen […] we have some salt of our youth in us.
8. obsolete, uncountable Piquancy; wit; sense. Attic salt
9. countable, obsolete A dish for salt at table; a salt cellar. I out and bought some things; among others, a dozen of silver salts.
10. countable, historical, in plural, uncountable Epsom salts or other salt used as a medicine.
11. figuratively, uncountable Skepticism and common sense. Any politician's statements must be taken with a grain of salt, but his need to be taken with a whole shaker of salt.
12. Internet, uncountable Tears; indignation; outrage; arguing. There was so much salt in that thread about the poor casting decision.
13. UK, historical, uncountable The money demanded by Eton schoolboys during the montem.

Similar: sal

adjective more salt · most salt

1. Of water: containing salt, saline. Why the Sea is Salt
2. Treated with salt as a preservative; cured with salt, salted. salt beef
3. Of land, fields etc.: flooded by the sea. a salt marsh
4. Of plants: growing in the sea or on land flooded by the sea. salt grass
5. Related to salt deposits, excavation, processing or use. a salt mine
6. figuratively, obsolete Bitter; sharp; pungent. I have a salt and sorry rheum offends me […].
7. figuratively, obsolete Salacious; lecherous; lustful; (of animals) in heat. It is impossible you should see this, / Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys, / As salt as wolves in pride, and fools as gross / As ignorance made drunk.
8. archaic, colloquial Costly; expensive.

verb salts · salting · salted

1. transitive To add salt to. to salt fish, beef, or pork; to salt the city streets in the winter

   Similar: salt down

2. intransitive To deposit salt as a saline solution. The brine begins to salt.
3. of a ship To fill with salt between the timbers and planks for the preservation of the timber.
4. To blast metal into (as a portion of a mine) in order to cause to appear to be a productive seam.
5. To add bogus evidence to an archaeological site.
6. transitive To add certain chemical elements to (a nuclear or conventional weapon) so that it generates more radiation. The composition of the fallout can also be changed by "salting" the weapon to be detonated. This consists in the inclusion of significant quantities of certain elements, possibly enriched in specific isotopes, for the purpose of producing induced radioactivity. There are several reasons why a weapon
7. transitive To sprinkle throughout. They salted the document with arcane language.
8. To add filler bytes before encrypting, in order to make brute-force decryption more resource-intensive.
9. transitive To sow with salt (of land), symbolizing a curse on its re-inhabitation. In this place were put to the ground and salted the houses of José Mascarenhas.
10. To lock a page title so it cannot be created.
11. To seek employment at a company in order to help unionize it. And then there was a different faction of organizers who you call more like “professional activists” or “white leftists,” and they were maybe more privileged, maybe just joined the job to salt for the union.

Opposite: desalt

noun salts

1. obsolete A bounding; a leaping; a prance. […] he hath the skill to draw Their nectar forth, with kissing; and could make More wanton salts from this brave promontory, Down to this valley, than the nimble roe;

proper noun

1. abbreviation, acronym, historical Acronym of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks

noun SALTs

1. US, abbreviation, acronym, attributive, usually Acronym of state and local tax(es) [deduction], a tax deduction whereby some portion of the money paid as taxes to state and local governments is not taxed at the federal level; the tax-deductible portion is nominally capped, but the cap is circumventable via special-interest loopholes. Both the SALT limitations and the doubled standard deduction expire after 2025, putting SALT on the 2025 menu for lawmakers.
2. UK, abbreviation, acronym Acronym of speech and language therapist
3. UK, abbreviation, acronym Acronym of speech and language therapy

proper noun Salts

1. countable, uncountable A village in Salt and Enson parish, Stafford borough, Staffordshire, England (OS grid ref SJ9527).
2. countable, uncountable A surname.