SALT
/sɔ:lt/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Noun:
- A white crystalline substance: A common mineral, primarily sodium chloride (NaCl), used to season and preserve food.
- The taste sensation: The flavor produced by this substance.
- A chemical compound: A compound formed by the reaction of an acid with a base, where the acid's hydrogen is replaced by a metal or other positive ion.
- Wit, piquancy: Liveliness, sharpness, or pungency in thought or expression.
Verb:
- To season or preserve with salt: To add salt to food for flavor or to prevent spoilage.
- To make lively or piquant: To add zest, interest, or excitement to something.
- To scatter or place strategically: To distribute something, often deceptively or in small amounts, across an area.
Adjective:
- Containing or treated with salt: Flavored or preserved with salt; saline.
- Sharp, biting: Of speech or wit, painfully or bitterly sharp.
- Experienced, seasoned: (Informal, especially in 'old salt') Referring to a sailor with long experience.
Usage Examples
- Noun:
- Add a pinch of salt to the soup.
- The salt of her tears was on his cheek.
- He is the salt of the earth, always helping others.
- Verb:
- They used to salt fish to preserve them for the winter.
- She salts her stories with clever observations.
- The area was salted with landmines.
- Adjective:
- The salt water stung his eyes.
- He made a salt remark that left everyone silent.
Advanced Usage
- "To take something with a grain/pinch of salt": To be skeptical about something; to not believe it completely.
- I take his promises with a grain of salt.
- "Worth one's salt": Deserving one's pay; being competent and useful.
- Any engineer worth his salt could solve this problem.
- "The salt of the earth": A person or group regarded as the finest, most admirable, or most decent.
- Those volunteers are the salt of the earth.
Variants and Related Words
- Salty (adj): Tasting of or containing salt; (informally) irritable or annoyed.
- The popcorn was too salty.
- He got salty after losing the game.
- Salinity (n): The concentration of salt in water or soil.
- Saltwater (adj): Consisting of or living in sea water.
- A saltwater aquarium.
Synonyms
- Seasoning (n): Something used to add flavor to food.
- Wit (n): The keen perception and clever expression of ideas.
- Preserve (v): To maintain or keep safe from decay.
Related Phrasal Verbs
- Salt away: To save or hoard money secretly.
- He has been salting away part of his salary for years.
- Salt out: (Chemistry) To cause a substance to separate from a solution by adding salt.
Related Idioms
- "Rub salt in the wound": To make a painful situation even worse.
- Losing was bad enough, but his gloating just rubbed salt in the wound.
- "Back to the salt mines": A humorous expression for returning to hard, tedious work.
- The weekend is over; it's back to the salt mines on Monday.
Adjective
- (of speech) painful or bitter
- salt scorn- Shakespeare
- a salt apology
Noun
- the taste experience when common salt is taken into the mouth
- negotiations between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics opened in 1969 in Helsinki designed to limit both countries' stock of nuclear weapons
- white crystalline form of especially sodium chloride used to season and preserve food
- a compound formed by replacing hydrogen in an acid by a metal (or a radical that acts like a metal)
Verb
- preserve with salt
- people used to salt meats on ships
- add zest or liveliness to
- She salts her lectures with jokes
- sprinkle as if with salt
- the rebels had salted the fields with mines and traps
- add salt to