n. 1 common or table salt, sodium chloride, sea salt, rock-salt A little salt will bring out the flavour 2 spice, spiciness, zest, zestiness, pungency, vigour, vitality, liveliness, pep, pepper, poignancy, piquancy, relish, bite, savour, seasoning, taste, Colloq zip, zing, punch Yes, do invite Randolph, for he can be relied on to add a little salt to the dinner conversation 3 (Attic) wit, Attic salt, dry humour, sarcasm Her conversation is sprinkled with the salt of clever aphorisms 4 See sailor, above. 5 with a grain or pinch of salt. cum grano salis, warily, cautiously, qualifiedly, qualifyingly, doubtfully, sceptically, suspiciously, reservedly, with reservation(s) or qualification(s) You have to take what he says with a grain of salt
v. 6 season, spice, flavour, pepper The pirate's speech was salted with expressions like 'Shiver me timbers!', 'Avast there!', and 'Blow me down!' 7 pickle, cure, preserve, corn, marinate, souse The book gives several recipes for curing ham and salting beef 8 salt away. save (up), hoard, put or lay or set by or aside, squirrel away, store up, stockpile, amass, accumulate, pile up, Colloq stash away, US and Canadian sock away They were always terribly stingy, claiming they were salting something away for their old age
adj. 9 salty, saline, brackish, briny The water had a salt taste 10 pickled, kippered, marinated, soused; corned; cured: Do you like salt herring?