SALT, noun [Gr.; Latin The radical sense is probably pungent, and if s is radical, the word belongs to the root of Latin salio; but this is uncertain.]

1. Common salt is the muriate of soda, a substance used for seasoning certain kinds of food, and for the preservation of meat, etc. It is found native in the earth, or it is produced by evaporation and crystallization from water impregnated with saline particles.

2. In chimistry, a body compounded of an acid united to some base, which may be either an alkali, an earth, or a metallic oxyd. Accordingly, salts are alkaline, earthy, or metallic. Many compounds of this kind, of which common salt (muriate of soda, ) is the most distinguished, exist in nature; but most of these, together with many others not known in nature, have been formed by the artificial combination of their elements. Their entire number exceeds 2000. When the acid and base mutually saturate each other, so that the individual properties of each are lost, the compound is a neutral salt; when the acid predominates, it is a super salt; and when the base predominates, it is a sub salt Thus we have a subcarbonate, a carbonate, and a supercarbonate of potash.

3. Taste; sapor; smack.

We have some salt of our youth in us.

4. Wit; poignancy; as Attic salt

SALT, adjective

1. Having the taste of salt; impregnated with salt; as salt beef; salt water

2. Abounding with salt; as a salt land. Jeremiah 17:6.

3. Overflowed with salt water, or impregnated with it; as a salt marsh.

4. Growing on salt marsh or meadows and having the taste of salt; as salt grass or hay.

5. Producing salt water; as a salt spring.

6. Lecherous; slacious.

SALT, noun

1. The part of a river near the sea, where the water is salt

2. A vessel for holding salt

SALT, verb transitive

1. To sprinkle, impregnate or season with salt; as, to salt fish, beef or pork.

2. To fill with salt between the timbers and planks, as a ship, for the preservation of the timber.

SALT, verb intransitive To deposit salt from a saline substance; as, the brine begins to salt [Used by manufacturers.]

SALT, noun A leap; the act of jumping. [Not in use.]