Noun

(en noun)

A common substance, chemically consisting mainly of sodium chloride (NaCl), used extensively as a condiment and preservative.

* c. 1430' (reprinted '''1888 ), Thomas Austin, ed., ''Two Fifteenth-century Cookery-books. Harleian ms. 279 (ab. 1430), & Harl. ms. 4016 (ab. 1450), with Extracts from Ashmole ms. 1429, Laud ms. 553, & Douce ms. 55 [Early English Text Society, Original Series; 91], London: 374760, page 11:

Soupes dorye. — Take gode almaunde mylke

(chemistry) One of the compounds formed from the reaction of an acid with a base, where a positive ion replaces a hydrogen of the acid.

(uncommon) A salt marsh, a saline marsh at the shore of a sea.

(slang) A sailor .

* 1850 , Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

Around the door are generally to be seen, laughing and gossiping, clusters of old salts .

* 1851 , Herman Melville, Moby-Dick ,

I never go as a passenger; nor, though I am something of a salt , do I ever go to sea as a Commodore, or a Captain, or a Cook.

(cryptography) Randomly]] chosen bytes added to a plaintext message prior to encrypting it, in order to render [[brute force, brute-force decryption more difficult.

A person who seeks employment at a company in order to (once employed by it) help unionize it.

(obsolete) flavour; taste; seasoning

* Shakespeare

Though we are justices and doctors and churchmen we have some salt of our youth in us.

(obsolete) piquancy; wit; sense

Attic salt

(obsolete) A dish for salt at table; a salt cellar.

* Samuel Pepys

I out and bought some things; among others, a dozen of silver salts .

(figurative) That which preserves from corruption or error, or purifies; a corrective; an antiseptic; also, an allowance or deduction.

His statements must be taken with a grain of salt .

* Bible, Matthew v. 13

Ye are the salt of the earth.

Noun

A liquid (often thickened) condiment or accompaniment to food.

apple sauce'''; mint '''sauce

(UK, Australia) tomato sauce (similar to US tomato ketchup), as in:

[meat] pie and [tomato] sauce

Alcohol, booze.

*

Maybe you should lay off the sauce .

(bodybuilding) Anabolic steroids.

(art) A soft crayon for use in stump drawing or in shading with the stump.

(internet slang) used when requesting the source of an image.

(dated) Cheek; impertinence; backtalk; sass.

* {{quote-book

, year = 1967 , first = Barbara , last = Sleigh , authorlink = Barbara Sleigh , title = (Jessamy) , edition = 1993 , location = Sevenoaks, Kent , publisher=Bloomsbury , isbn = 0 340 19547 9 , page = 28 , url = , passage = ‘I’ll have none of your sauce', young Jessamy. Just because you’ve been took up by the family you’ve no call to give yourself airs. You’re only the housekeeper’s niece, and cook-housekeeper at that, and don’t you forgrt it. You know full well I’m parlour maid, Matchett to the gentry, ''Miss'' Matchett to you – you little —!’ Jessamy broke in anxiously. ‘But I didn’t mean it for ' sauce , really I didn’t:’ }}

* {{quote-book

, year = 1967 , first = Barbara , last = Sleigh , authorlink = Barbara Sleigh , title = (Jessamy) , edition = 1993 , location = Sevenoaks, Kent , publisher=Bloomsbury , isbn = 0 340 19547 9 , page = 39 , url = , passage = ‘Well, you know what Matchett’s like! Just about bring herself to talk to me because I’m housemaid, but if the gardener’s boy so much as looks at ’er it’s sauce ,’ said Sarah. }}

Vegetables.

* {{quote-book

, year=1833 , author=(John Neal) , title=The Down-Easters, Volume 1 , passage=I wanted cabbage or potaters, or most any sort o' garden sarse … .}}

* {{quote-book

, year=1882 , author= , title=Peck's Sunshine , chapter=Unscrewing the Top of a Fruit Jar citation , passage=and all would be well only for a remark of a little boy who, when asked if he will have some more of the sauce , says he "don't want no strawberries pickled in kerosene."}}

(obsolete, UK, US, dialect) Any garden vegetables eaten with meat.

* Beverly

Roots, herbs, vine fruits, and salad flowers they dish up various ways, and find them very delicious sauce to their meats, both roasted and boiled, fresh and salt.

(Forby)

(Bartlett)