salty

adjective saltier · saltiest

1. Tasting of salt. A few types of molecules get sensed by receptors on the tongue. Protons coming off of acids ping receptors for "sour." Sugars get received as "sweet." Bitter, salty, and the proteinaceous flavor umami all set off their own neural cascades.
2. Containing salt. At Zipaquirá, the salty ore is taken from the mine in chunks, then thrown into large tanks of water, where the salt is dissolved out. The resulting brine is drawn off into pipelines, containers, or tank trucks and sold […]
3. figuratively, of language Coarse; provocative; earthy. In the following piece she has some characteristically salty things to say about what happens when law and medicine meet.
4. figuratively Experienced, especially used to indicate a veteran of the naval services; salty dog (from salt of the sea). There's a sailor's tavern at the end of the street where I could find companionship if I chose (one catches salty boys going in and out at any hour) but only music matters to me now.
5. slang Irritated, annoyed, angry, bitter. Ray and Fuzzy were salty with our unhip no-playing piano player, because she broke time on the piano so bad that the strings yelled whoa to the hammers.
6. Pertaining to the Sardinian language and those dialects of Catalan, spoken in the Balearic Islands and along the coast of Catalonia, that use definitive articles descended from the Latin ipse (“self”) instead of the Latin ille (“that”).

Similar: haline, saline, salt, salty · Opposite: nonsaline, nonsalt, nonsalty, unsalty