Salt

Salt, sawlt, n. chloride of sodium, or common salt, a well-known substance used for seasoning, found either in the earth or obtained by evaporation from sea-water: anything like salt: seasoning: piquancy: abatement, modification, allowance: an experienced sailor: that which preserves from corruption: an antiseptic: (chem.) a body composed of an acid and a base united in definite proportions, or of bromine, chlorine, fluorine, or iodine, with a metal or metalloid: (obs.) lust.—v.t. to sprinkle or season with salt: to fill with salt between the timbers for preservation.—adj. containing salt: tasting of salt: overflowed with, or growing in, salt-water: pungent: lecherous: (coll.) costly, expensive—ns. Salt′-block, a salt-evaporating apparatus; Salt′-bott′om, a flat piece of ground covered with saline efflorescences: Salt′-bush, an Australian plant of the goose-foot family; Salt′-cake, the crude sodium sulphate occurring as a by-product in the manufacture of hydrochloric acid; Salt′-cat, a mixture given as a digestive to pigeons; Salt′er, one who salts, or who makes, sells, or deals in salt, as in Drysalter: a trout leaving salt-water to ascend a stream; Sal′tern, salt-works; Salt′-foot, a large saltcellar marking the boundary between the superior and inferior guests; Salt′-gauge, an instrument for testing the strength of brine; Salt′-glaze, a glaze produced upon ceramic ware by putting common salt in the kilns after they have been fired.—adj. Salt′-green (Shak.), sea-green.—ns. Salt′-group, a series of rocks containing salt, as the Onondaga salt-group; Salt′-hold′er, a saltcellar; Salt′-horse, salted beef; Salt′ie, the salt-water fluke or dab; Salt′ing, the act of sprinkling with salt: the celebration of the Eton 'Montem.'—adj. Salt′ish, somewhat salt.—adv. Salt′ishly, so as to be moderately salt.—ns. Salt′ishness, a moderate degree of saltness; Salt′-junk, hard salt beef for use at sea.—adj. Salt′less, without salt: tasteless.—n. Salt′-lick, a place to which animals resort for salt.—adv. Salt′ly.—ns. Salt′-marsh, land liable to be overflowed by the sea or the waters of estuaries; Salt′-marsh cat′erpillar, the hairy larva of an arctiid moth; Salt′-marsh hen, a clapper-rail; Salt′-marsh terr′apin, the diamond-backed turtle; Salt′-mine, a mine where rock-salt is obtained; Salt′ness, impregnation with salt; Salt′-pan, a pan, basin, or pit where salt is obtained or made; Salt′-pit, a pit where salt is obtained; Salt′-rheum, a cutaneous eruption; Salts, Epsom salt or other salt used as a medicine.—adj. Salt′-sliv′ered, slivered and salted, as fish for bait.—ns. Salt′-spoon, a small spoon for serving salt at table; Salt′-spring, a brine-spring; Salt′-wa′ter, water impregnated with salt, sea-water; Salt′-works, a place where salt is made; Salt′-wort, a genus of plants of many species, mostly natives of salt-marshes and sea-shores, one only being found in Britain, the Prickly S., which was formerly burned for the soda it yielded.—adj. Salt′y (same as Saltish).—Salt a mine, to deposit ore in it cunningly so as to deceive persons who inspect it regarding its value; Salt of lemon, or sorrel, acid potassium oxalate, a solvent for ink-stains; Salt of soda, sodium carbonate; Salt of tartar, a commercial name for purified potassium carbonate; Salt of vitriol, sulphate of zinc; Salt of wormwood, carbonate of potash.—Above the salt, at the upper half of the table, among the guests of distinction; Attic salt, wit; Below the salt, at the lower half of the table; Be not worth one's salt, not to deserve even the salt that gives relish to one's food; Bronzing salt, used in burning gun-barrels; Epsom salts, magnesium sulphate, a cathartic; Essential salts, those produced from the juices of plants by crystallisation; Glauber's salt, or Horse salts, a well-known cathartic, used in woollen dyeing; Lay salt on the tail of, to catch; Neutral salt, a salt in which the acid and the base neutralise each other; Rochelle salt, sodium potassium tartrate, a laxative; Spirits of salt, the old name for muriatic or hydrochloric acid; Take with a grain of salt, to believe with some reserve. [A.S. sealt; cf. Ger. salz, also L. sal, Gr. hals.]