saltcellar, saltsaler

A small ve el of gla , silver, ., for holding salt on the table. [CELLAR.] "When any salt is spilt on the table-cloth, shake it out into the salt - cellar ."- Swift : Direct, to the Butler. "Ye are the salt of the earth." - Matthew v. 13. (3) Taste, smack, flavor. "Though we are justices and doctors and churchmen, Mr. Page, we have some salt of our youth in us." Shakesp.: Merry Wives of Windsor , ii. 3. (4) Wit, pungency, smartne , sarcasm. " Salt and smartne ."- Til lots on : Sermons , i. 79. (5) A marshy place flooded by the tide. ( Prov .) (6) A sailor, especially an old sailor. ( Colloq .) "An old salt , sitting at the tiller."-London Daily Tele graph . II. Technically: 1. Chemistry: (1) ( Sing .). [SODIUM-CHLORIDE.] (2) ( Pl . ) : Applied in a general sense to compounds of a metal and a halogen, as sodium Chloride, NaCl; and to compounds formed by the union of an acid and a base, nitrate of silver, AgNO3. In its fuller signification the term suggests a compound which can suffer rapid double decomposition with another soluble substance, as when solutions of chloride of sodium and nitrate of silver are mixed together they at once decompose each other and form chloride of silver and nitrate of sodium. By an extension of meaning the name is sometimes applied to compounds, as chloride of ethyl, acetate of ethyl, and even to fats, as stearin, triste a rate of glycerin. Popularly and medicinally the term salts refers to Epsom salts (q. v.). 2. Comm., & c .: Salt production is a very important industry in the United States. As early as 1620 the James town colonists of Virginia established salt works at Cape Charles. Rock salt is abundant in West Virginia and Louisiana, and salt "licks" and springs are found in nearly all the States and Territories. The springs of Southern Illinois were worked by the French and Indians in 1720. The Kentucky salt springs were known and used before 1790. Valuable salt works have been established in Western Virginia, Ohio, Mi ouri, Michigan, New Mexico, Nebraska, New York, California, and Arkansas. The more important sources of supply are New York, West Virginia, and Ohio, New York alone producing more than one-half of the entire domestic supply. Besides seasoning food and preserving it for domestic use, for long voyages, ., salt is used in the manufacture of muriatic acid and soda, to glaze pottery, to give hardne to soap, to preserve the surface of metals from being calcined when they are being melted, also as a mordant, . B. As adjective: I. Literally: 1. Abounding in or impregnated with salt; containing or producing salt; as, a salt spring. 2. Prepared with or tasting of salt; salted; as salt beef. 3. Overflowed with or growing in salt water; as, a salt marsh. salt.