Definition of: salt

(sôlt) noun
1. Sodium chloride, NaCl, a widely distributed compound, used by men from time immemorial as a seasoning preservative: a necessary ingredient of food for most mammals. It is obtained by evaporation or freezing of the water of the ocean, of saline lakes and springs or wells, and by mining in beds of rock salt. ♦ Collateral adjective: saline.
2. Chem. Any compound produced when all or part of the hydrogen of an acid is replaced by an electropositive radical or a metal. Salts are usually formed by treating a metal with an acid or by the interaction of a base and an acid. Usually the salts derived from acids whose names end in -ic take the suffix -ate, and those ending in -ous take -ite.
3. plural A salt used as a laxative or cathartic; also, smelling salts.
4. Piquant humor; dry wit; repartee: from the phrase Attic salt.
5. That which preserves, corrects, or purifies: the salt of criticism; seasoning.
6. A sailor: an old salt.
7. A saltcellar.
—below the salt In inferior, subordinate, or servile position.
—to take with a grain of salt To allow for exaggeration; have doubts about.
—adjective
1. Flavored with salt; salty; briny: opposed to sweet.
2. Cured or preserved with salt.
3. Containing, or growing or living in or near, salt water.
4. Obs. Salacious; licentious; gross.
—v.t.
1. To season with salt.
2. To preserve or cure with salt.
3. To furnish with salt: to salt cattle.
4. To season as if with salt; add zest or piquancy to.
5. To add something to so as fraudulently to increase the value: to salt a mine with gold.
—to salt away
1. To pack in salt for preserving.
2. Colloq. To store up; save.
—to salt out To separate (coal-tar colors) by adding salt to solutions containing them. [OE sealt. Akin to SAL.] salt′ish adjective
—salt′ness noun