salt

noun

1. 1.

   A common substance, chemically consisting mainly of sodium chloride (NaCl), used extensively as a food ingredient, seasoning, condiment, and preservative.

2. 2.

   White crystalline form of especially sodium chloride used to season and preserve food

3. 3.

   chemistry

   A compound formed by replacing hydrogen in an acid by a metal (or a radical that acts like a metal)

4. 4.

   chemistry

   One of the compounds formed from the reaction of an acid with a base, where a positive ion replaces a hydrogen of the acid.

5. 5.

   A person who seeks employment at a company in order to (once employed by it) help unionize it.

6. 6.

   figurativeuncountable

   Skepticism and common sense.

adjective

1. 1.

   Of land, fields etc.: flooded by the sea.

2. 2.

   Of plants: growing in the sea or on land flooded by the sea.

3. 3.

   Of water: containing salt, saline.

4. 4.

   Treated with salt as a preservative; cured with salt, salted.

5. 5.

   Related to salt deposits, excavation, processing or use.

verb

1. 1.

   Add zest or liveliness to

   “She salts her lectures with jokes.”

2. 2.

   transitive

   To sprinkle throughout.

3. 3.

   To insert or inject something into an object to give it properties it would not naturally have.

4. 4.

   To render a thing useless.

5. 5.

   Preserve with salt

   “People used to salt meats on ships.”

6. 6.

   Sprinkle as if with salt

   “The rebels had salted the fields with mines and traps.”

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

• salternounInflected form

  Someone who uses salt to preserve meat or fish or other foods.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

• saltyadjectiveDerived adjective

  Containing or filled with salt.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

• salt plainnounCompound term

  A flat expanse of salt left by the evaporation of a body of salt water.

• salt porknounCompound term

  Fat from the back and sides and belly of a hog carcass cured with salt.

• salt reed grassnounCompound term

  Tall reedlike grass common in salt meadows.

• salt-rising breadnounCompound term

  White wheat bread raised by a salt-tolerant bacterium in a mixture of salt and either cornmeal or potato pulp.

• salt rushnounCompound term

  Rush of the Pacific coast of North America.

• salt shakernounCompound term

  A shaker with a perforated top for sprinkling salt.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

• saltwaternounRelated term

  Water containing salts.