salt

Meaning

Noun

1. A common substance, chemically consisting mainly of sodium chloride (NaCl), used extensively as a condiment and preservative.
2. One of the compounds formed from the reaction of an acid with a base, where a positive ion replaces a hydrogen of the acid.
3. A salt marsh, a saline marsh at the shore of a sea.
4. (slang) A sailor (also old salt).
5. A sequence of random data added to plain text data (such as passwords or messages) prior to encryption or hashing, in order to make brute force decryption more difficult.
6. A person who seeks employment at a company in order to (once employed by it) help unionize it.
7. (obsolete) Flavour; taste; seasoning.
8. (obsolete) Piquancy; wit; sense.
9. (obsolete) A dish for salt at table; a salt cellar.
10. Epsom salts or other salt used as a medicine.
11. Skepticism and common sense.
12. Tears; indignation; outrage; arguing.
13. The money demanded by Eton schoolboys during the montem.

Adj

1. Of water: containing salt, saline.
2. Treated with salt as a preservative; cured with salt, salted.
3. Of land, fields etc.: flooded by the sea.
4. Of plants: growing in the sea or on land flooded by the sea.
5. Related to salt deposits, excavation, processing or use.
6. (obsolete) Bitter; sharp; pungent.
7. (obsolete) Salacious; lecherous; lustful; (of animals) in heat.
8. (colloquial) Costly; expensive.

Verb

1. To add salt to.
2. To deposit salt as a saline solution.
3. To fill with salt between the timbers and planks for the preservation of the timber.
4. To insert or inject something into an object to give it properties it would not naturally have.
5. To insert or inject something into an object to give it properties it would not naturally have.
6. To insert or inject something into an object to give it properties it would not naturally have.
7. To sprinkle throughout.
8. To add filler bytes before encrypting, in order to make brute-force decryption more resource-intensive.
9. To render a thing useless.
10. To render a thing useless.

Pronounced as (IPA)

/sɒlt/

Etymology

PIE word
*séh₂ls
From Middle English salt, from Old English sealt, from Proto-West Germanic *salt, from Proto-Germanic *saltą, from Proto-Indo-European *séh₂ls (“salt”). Doublet of sal, ultimately from Latin sāl (“salt”), which it superseded as the general term for "salt".