Salt Definition
sôlt
salted, salting, salts, saltest
noun
salts
Sodium chloride, NaCl, a white, crystalline substance with a characteristic taste, found in natural beds, in seawater, etc., and used for seasoning and preserving foods.
Webster's New World
A chemical compound derived from an acid by replacing hydrogen, wholly or partly, with a metal or an electropositive radical.
Webster's New World
Smelling salts.
American Heritage Medicine
Any of various mineral salts used as a cathartic, as Epsom salts, or to soften bathwater, as a restorative, etc.
Webster's New World
Webster's New World
Synonyms:
- smartness
- pungency
- relish
- cum grano salis (Latin);
- doubtingly
- one of nature's noblemen*;
- solid citizen
- a good person
- skeptically
- worthless
- bad
- good-for-nothing
- not socially acceptable;
- not in favor
- disfavored
Antonyms:
adjective
saltest
Containing salt.
Webster's New World
Preserved with salt.
Webster's New World
Tasting or smelling of salt.
Webster's New World
Pungent or biting.
Webster's New World
Flooded with salt water.
Webster's New World
Synonyms:
verb
salted, salting, salts
To sprinkle or season with salt.
Webster's New World
To preserve with salt or in a salt solution.
Webster's New World
To provide with salt.
Webster's New World
To treat with salt in chemical processes.
Webster's New World
To add zest or liveliness to.
Salt a lecture with anecdotes.
American Heritage
abbreviation
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.
American Heritage
idiom
salt of the earth
- A person or group considered the best or most worthy part of society.
American Heritage
worth (one's) salt
- Efficient and capable.
American Heritage
above (<i>or</i> below) the salt
- in a more honored (or less honored) position
Webster's New World
salt away
- to pack and preserve with salt
- to store or save (money, etc.)
Webster's New World
salt out
- to precipitate or separate (a substance) from its solution by the addition of a soluble salt
Webster's New World
Other Word Forms of Salt
Noun
Singular:
salt
Plural:
saltsAdjective
Base Form:
salt
Superlative:
saltestIdioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Salt
- salt of the earth
- worth (one's) salt
- above (or below) the salt
- salt away
- salt out
- with a grain of salt
- worth one's salt
Origin of Salt
-
From Old English sealt, from Proto-Germanic *saltÄ… (compare Dutch zout, German Salz, Swedish salt), from Proto-Indo-European *sehâ‚‚l- (compare French sel, Welsh halen, Old Irish salann, Latin sal, Russian соль (sol'), Ancient Greek ἅλς (háls), Albanian ngjelmë (“salty, savory"), Old Armenian Õ¡Õ² (aÅ‚), Tocharian A sāle, Sanskrit सलिल (salila)).
From Wiktionary
-
Middle English from Old English sealt sal- in Indo-European roots
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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