OLD SALT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does old salt mean? 

• OLD SALT (noun)
  The noun OLD SALT has 1 sense:

1. a man who serves as a sailor

  Familiarity information: OLD SALT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OLD SALT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A man who serves as a sailor

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

gob; Jack; Jack-tar; mariner; old salt; sea dog; seafarer; seaman; tar

Hypernyms ("old salt" is a kind of...):

crewman; sailor (any member of a ship's crew)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "old salt"):

able-bodied seaman; able seaman (a seaman in the merchant marine; trained in special skills)

bo's'n; bo'sun; boatswain; bos'n; bosun (a petty officer on a merchant ship who controls the work of other seamen)

deckhand; roustabout (a member of a ship's crew who performs manual labor)

helmsman; steerer; steersman (the person who steers a ship)

bargee; bargeman; lighterman (someone who operates a barge)

officer; ship's officer (a person authorized to serve in a position of authority on a vessel)

pilot (a person qualified to guide ships through difficult waters going into or out of a harbor)

sea lawyer (an argumentative and contentious seaman)

whaler (a seaman who works on a ship that hunts whales)

 Context examples 

People were frightened at the time, but on looking back they rather liked it; it was a fine excitement in a quiet country life, and there was even a party of the younger men who pretended to admire him, calling him a true sea-dog and a real old salt and such like names, and saying there was the sort of man that made England terrible at sea.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

It was now nearly the hour of high tide, but the waves were so great that in their troughs the shallows of the shore were almost visible, and the schooner, with all sails set, was rushing with such speed that, in the words of one old salt, she must fetch up somewhere, if it was only in hell.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)