salt

Less common meanings

9. 9
   anger and tearsnounslanguncountable

   Bitter, often petty resentment or indignation, especially shown online after a loss or slight.

   The losing team's fans flooded the comments with salt after the final whistle.

   His post about losing the tournament was full of salt and sour grapes.

   UsageOften in full of salt or a lot of salt; the adjective salty is also very common.

   Similartears, bitterness, indignation, outrage, bile

   Note

   Online argument has its own seasoning: here the word means the tears and fury of people who feel wronged, as in 'so much salt in that thread'.

10. 10
    coastal marshnounrarecountable

    A coastal marsh flooded by saline water at the shore of the sea.

    Similarmarsh

    Note

    A rare noun that works as a short form of salt marsh. It is countable, so the plural salts can name a whole stretch of such ground. In most writing the full phrase is clearer: salt marsh, built on the 'sea-flooded' adjective, is the form readers expect. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

    • Salt marsh uses the adjective salt meaning flooded by the sea. en.wiktionary.org
11. 11
    adjective

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

    At high tide the sea covers the salt marshes, and only plants that tolerate brine can grow there.

    Generations of farmers built dikes to turn the salt meadows along the coast into dry farmland.

    UsageMostly in compounds: salt marsh, salt meadow.

    Similarsaline, tidal

12. 12
    sprinkle throughverbtransitive

    To add small amounts or single examples of something throughout a larger whole, often to give it a particular quality.

    The director salts the film with subtle nods to earlier works.

    Writers often salt their dialogue with regional slang.

    UsageUsually with with: salt a speech with jokes; often passive: salted with slang.

    Similarpepper, sprinkle, season, spice, lace

    Note

    A movement 'salted with Nixonites', in Ronnie Allen's 1976 phrase, is shot through with a few of them, not made of them. The image is of scattered grains, so the word suits small, distributed additions. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Ronnie Allen used 'salted with Nixonites' in 1976, referring to Libertarians. en.wiktionary.org
13. 13
    sailornounslangcountable

    A sailor, especially an experienced one (often old salt).

    A weathered old salt mended nets by the harbor wall.

    Grandpa, an old salt who spent forty years on fishing boats, could predict a squall just by smelling the wind.

    Similarsailor, seaman, mariner, seafarer, tar

    Oppositelandlubber

    Note

    Sailors' slang with a literary pedigree. Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850) has clusters of 'old salts' gossiping around the doors of waterfront shops, and Melville's narrator in Moby-Dick (1851) calls himself 'something of a salt'. Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

    • 'Salt' meaning sailor is slang. en.wiktionary.org
    • Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter, first published in 1850. en.wikipedia.org
    • The Scarlet Letter describes clusters of 'old salts' gossiping around waterfront shop doors. gutenberg.org
    • Herman Melville wrote Moby-Dick. gutenberg.org
    • Moby-Dick was first published in 1851. en.wikipedia.org
    • The narrator describes himself using the exact words 'something of a salt'. gutenberg.org
14. 14
    curse landverbtransitive

    To scatter salt over conquered or destroyed land as a symbolic curse meant to keep it from being lived on again.

    The victorious army salted the ground around the ruined city.

    Legend says conquerors would salt the earth so no one could resettle it.

    UsageBest known as salt the earth or salt the ground.

    Note

    Conquest's curse in a single verb. Land is salted so that it will be useless and never lived on again, and the act works as a symbol as much as a practical ruin. It can fall on property as well as fields: the houses of José Mascarenhas were razed and salted. The same idea of rendering a thing useless carries into the wiki use. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Salting destroyed land symbolized a curse intended to prevent renewed habitation. en.wikipedia.org
    • José Mascarenhas's houses were razed and their site salted. arquivomunicipal.lisboa.pt
15. 15
    fake a mineverbtransitive

    To secretly put something into a place or collection, such as ore in a mine, fake finds at a dig, or decoy entries in a list, so it seems different than it is.

    Swindlers salt worthless claims to fool eager investors.

    He had salted the diggings with imported ore before the assayers arrived.

    UsageUsually of mines and claims: salt a mine, a salted claim.

    Similardoctor

    Note

    Behind this verb is a wider idea: inserting something into an object to give it properties it would not naturally have. In mining, that means blasting metal into barren rock so that a seam looks productive. The object is the mine, the claim or the diggings, and the swindle's product is a salted mine. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Mine salting can involve blasting metal into rock to make it appear productive. en.wiktionary.org
    • Mine salting is a fraud intended to exaggerate a deposit's productivity or value. en.wikipedia.org
16. 16
    leave depositsverbintransitive

    Of a saline solution, to leave behind deposits of salt as it dries.

    Note

    Here the solution itself does the work. The verb is intransitive, so brine salts with no object as it gives up its dissolved salt. Compare the everyday 'add salt' verb, where a cook salts something. Its natural subjects are brines and springs, and it pairs easily with words of process: begins to salt, salts as it dries.

17. 17
    table dishnouncountable

    A small dish or cellar for holding salt at the table.

    I out and bought some things; among others, a dozen of silver salts.

    1664, Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright

    Note

    Table furniture rather than seasoning: in 1664 Samuel Pepys went out and bought 'a dozen of silver salts'. The noun is countable here, which sets it apart from the substance on the same table, and the dish could be grand enough to be made of silver. Today the object is a salt cellar. The short form appears in phrases about sitting above or below the salt. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • In 1664 Samuel Pepys bought twelve silver salt cellars and described them as 'a dozen of silver salts'. gutenberg.org
    • Salt cellars could be elaborate objects made of silver. en.wikipedia.org
18. 18
    nounobsoleteuncountable

    Flavor or taste; the seasoning quality that gives food its savor.

    Note

    An obsolete use where the word meant savor in general, not the mineral. Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor gives it a human turn: Justice Shallow, speaking for justices, doctors and churchmen, says 'we have some salt of our youth in us', meaning a lingering relish for life. A modern reader may hear wit instead, but that is the 'piquancy' meaning, a close neighbor. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

    • Salt had an obsolete sense meaning flavor or savor generally. en.wiktionary.org
    • William Shakespeare wrote The Merry Wives of Windsor. gutenberg.org
    • The play contains the quoted words. gutenberg.org
    • Justice Shallow speaks the line to Master Page in Act II, scene III, referring collectively to the professions. gutenberg.org
    • The quotation figuratively describes something of youth surviving into age. en.wiktionary.org
    • Salt also has a distinct historical sense referring to piquancy or wit. en.wiktionary.org
19. 19
    witnounobsoleteuncountable

    Piquancy, wit, or keen sharpness of expression in speech or writing.

    Note

    Wit with a bite, now obsolete as a free-standing noun. Its best-known setting is the phrase Attic salt, the elegant sharpness associated with Athens. The 'savor' meaning is about flavor in general, while this one is about the sting of a remark. In modern prose, use the full phrase; the bare noun reads as archaic. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Salt has a historical sense meaning piquancy or wit. en.wiktionary.org
    • Attic salt means pointed, delicate wit. en.wiktionary.org
    • Attic salt is associated with Athens. en.wikipedia.org
20. 20
    adjectiveobsoletefiguratively

    Bitter, sharp, or pungent, whether in taste or in tone.

    Note

    An obsolete sharpness of feeling rather than of taste. In Shakespeare's Othello a speaker complains of 'a salt and sorry rheum', a stinging, wretched watering of the eyes or nose, with salt standing beside sorry as a word for discomfort. In older verse, read it as 'bitter' or 'smarting', not as a remark about seasoning. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • Salt has an obsolete figurative sense meaning bitter, sharp, or pungent. en.wiktionary.org
    • Shakespeare's Othello contains the exact phrase quoted; the speaker is Othello. folger.edu
    • Rheum refers to discharge from the eyes or nose. en.wikipedia.org
    • Sorry can describe something pitiful or regrettable, supporting the gloss 'wretched'. en.wiktionary.org
    • Bitter or smarting is an appropriate interpretation of this obsolete sense. en.wiktionary.org
21. 21
    costlyadjectivearchaic

    Costly or expensive; charged at a steep price.

    Note

    Price talk from an earlier, informal English: a bill or a fee could be called salt, much as one now calls it steep. The use is archaic, so today it reads as a period touch. It adds color to dialogue set in the past. In present-day writing, choose expensive or steep, which no one will mistake for a comment on taste. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

    • Salt historically meant costly or expensive in informal English, so it could describe an expensive bill or fee. en.wiktionary.org
22. 22
    lustfuladjectiveobsoletefiguratively

    Lustful, lecherous, or salacious; 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.

    c. 1603, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”

    Note

    An obsolete figurative use that modern readers easily miss: the word meant lustful and, of animals, in heat. Shakespeare's Othello sets it among goats and monkeys, 'as salt as wolves in pride'. Thomas Urquhart's 1653 translation of Rabelais speaks of 'a proud or salt bitch'. Both pair it with pride or proud, a clue to read it sexually. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

    • Salt had an obsolete figurative meaning of lustful or, for animals, in heat. en.wiktionary.org
    • Shakespeare's Othello contains the quoted words alongside references to goats and monkeys; Iago speaks them. folger.edu
    • Thomas Urquhart translated the relevant books of Rabelais, first published in English in 1653. gutenberg.org
    • Urquhart's translation contains the exact phrase 'a proud or salt bitch'. en.wiktionary.org
    • The Shakespeare passage pairs salt with pride, which historically could mean sexual desire or heat. en.wiktionary.org
    • The Rabelais passage pairs salt with proud, which historically could mean sexually excited or in heat. en.wiktionary.org
23. 23
    verb

    To make a weapon, nuclear or conventional, emit more radiation by mixing in particular chemical elements.
24. 24
    noun

    A random value combined with a password or other data before it is hashed, so identical passwords give different hashes and precomputed guesses fail.
25. 25
    verb

    To add a random value to data such as a password before hashing it, so that identical inputs give different results.
26. 26
    verb

    To lock a page title on a wiki so that the page cannot be created.
27. 27
    noun

    A person who takes a job at a company specifically to help organize a union there once hired.
28. 28
    verb

    To pack salt between the timbers and planks of a wooden ship to preserve the wood from decay.
29. 29
    nounUK

    Money collected from passersby by Eton College boys during the montem, an old school procession.
30. 30
    nounobsolete

    A jump, bound, or prancing movement.