salt

noun14

1. •
   a white mineral found in sea water and in the ground, made mostly of sodium chloride, that has a sharp taste and is added to food or used to keep meat and fish from going bad

   • Take gode almaunde mylke y-draw wyth wyn, an let hem boyle to-gederys, an caste þer-to Safroun an Salt; […] — 1888
2. •
   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. •
   [in the plural] Epsom salts or other salt used as a medicine.
4. •
   (figurative) 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.
5. •
   (slang) A sailor (also old salt).

   • Around the door are generally to be seen, laughing and gossiping, clusters of old salts. — 1850
6. •
   (Internet) Tears; indignation; outrage; arguing.

   • There was so much salt in that thread about the poor casting decision.
7. •
   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.
8. •
   A salt marsh, a saline marsh at the shore of a sea.
9. •
   A person who seeks employment at a company in order to (once employed by it) help unionize it.
10. •
    (UK, historical) The money demanded by Eton schoolboys during the montem.
11. •
    (no longer used) Flavour; taste; seasoning.

    • Though we are justices and doctors and churchmen […] we have some salt of our youth in us. — 1597
12. •
    (no longer used) Piquancy; wit; sense.
13. •
    (no longer used) A dish for salt at table; a salt cellar.

    • I out and bought some things; among others, a dozen of silver salts. — 1664
14. •
    (no longer used) 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 — 1616

verb13

1. •
   To add salt to.

   • to salt fish, beef, or pork; to salt the city streets in the winter
2. •
   To fill with salt between the timbers and planks for the preservation of the timber.
3. •
   To sprinkle throughout.

   • They salted the document with arcane language.
4. •
   To insert or inject something into an object to give it properties it would not naturally have.
5. •
   To blast metal into (as a portion of a mine) in order to cause to appear to be a productive seam.
6. •
   To add bogus evidence to an archaeological site.
7. •
   To add certain chemical elements to (a nuclear or conventional weapon) so that it generates more radiation.
8. •
   To add filler bytes before encrypting, in order to make brute-force decryption more resource-intensive.
9. •
   To render a thing useless.
10. •
    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.
11. •
    To lock a page title so it cannot be created.
12. •
    To deposit salt as a saline solution.

    • The brine begins to salt.
13. •
    To seek employment at a company in order to help unionize it.

adjective8

1. •
   Of water: containing salt, saline.

   • Why the Sea is Salt
2. •
   Related to salt deposits, excavation, processing or use.

   • The salt factory is a key connecting element in the seawater infrastructure.
3. •
   Treated with salt as a preservative; cured with salt, salted.

   • Philander went into the next room[…]and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm. — 1913
4. •
   Of land, fields etc.: flooded by the sea.
5. •
   Of plants: growing in the sea or on land flooded by the sea.
6. •
   (figurative, no longer used) Bitter; sharp; pungent.

   • I have a salt and sorry rheum offends me […]. — 1603
7. •
   (figurative, no longer used) 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. — 1603
8. •
   (informal, no longer used) Costly; expensive.

noun3

1. •
   [before a noun] (US) 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. — 2024
2. •
   (UK) Acronym of speech and language therapy.
3. •
   (UK) Acronym of speech and language therapist.