salt

Multiple Entries:
  salt    SALT  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
salt /sɔːlt, sɒlt/

▶noun

• 1 (also common salt) sodium chloride, a white crystalline substance which gives seawater its characteristic taste and is used for seasoning or preserving food.

  ■ literary something which adds freshness or piquancy.

• 2 Chemistry any chemical compound formed by the reaction of an acid with a base, with the hydrogen of the acid replaced by a metal or other cation.

• 3 (usu. old salt) informal an experienced sailor.

▶adjective

• 1 impregnated with salt.

• 2 (of a plant) growing on the coast or in salt marshes.

▶verb

• 1 (often as adj. salted) season or preserve with salt.

  ■ make piquant or more interesting.

• 2 sprinkle (a road or path) with salt in order to melt snow or ice.

• 3 (salt something away) informal secretly store or put by something, especially money.

• 4 informal fraudulently make (a mine) appear to be a paying one by placing rich ore into it.

• 5 (salt something out) cause soap to separate from lye by adding salt.

  ■ Chemistry cause an organic compound to separate from an aqueous solution by adding an electrolyte.

• 6 (as adj. salted) (of a horse) having developed a resistance to disease by surviving it.

– phrases
rub salt into the wound make a painful experience even more painful.
the salt of the earth a person of great kindness, reliability, or honesty. [with biblical allusion to Matt 5:13.]
sit below the salt be of lower social standing. [from the former custom of placing a salt cellar in the middle of a dining table with the host at one end.]
take something with a pinch (or grain) of salt regard something as exaggerated; believe only part of something.
worth one's salt good or competent at one's job or allotted task.

– derivatives
saltish adjective,
saltless adjective,
saltness noun.

– origin OE sealt (n.), sealtan (v.), of Gmc origin.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
SALT /sɔːlt, sɒlt/

▶abbreviation Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.