salty
Americanadjective
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saltier,
comparative
-
saltiest
superlative
-
racy or coarse.
salty humor.
-
of the sea, sailing, or life at sea.
salty tales of adventure on the high seas.
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Slang. (especially of a sailor) toughened by experience.
proud and salty Marines.
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Slang. angry, upset, or hostile, especially due to embarrassment or failure.
He gets all salty whenever he loses.
adjective
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of, tasting of, or containing salt
-
(esp of humour) sharp; piquant
-
relating to life at sea
Usage
What else does salty mean? Salty is a slang term for irritated, angry, or resentful, especially as a result of losing or being slighted. This sense of salty originates in and was popularized by Black English.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of salty
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English; see origin at salt 1, -y 1
Explanation
Potato chips and sea captains are salty. Salty can mean literally covered in salt like those delicious chips, or just crotchety, like a foul-mouthed skipper. You can't drink sea water because it's so salty — but it may be hard for you to eat certain foods when they're not salty enough. Colloquially, you can use this adjective to mean "down-to-earth," "aggressive," or "exciting." So for example you could describe a movie pirate who's tough and blunt-spoken as salty. The "exciting or provocative" meaning dates from the 1860s, from the sense of "giving life or strong flavor."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
So the Caesar-ish dressing here is intentionally concentrated: cream cheese for body, Kewpie for tang and richness, and a dab of white miso for the salty, fermented funk that anchovy ordinarily brings to Caesar.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026
Other examples include combinations like purple sweet potato ice cream, cheesecake with carrot compote, or chocolate bars loaded with salty potato chips.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
They also have water galore—a toxic, salty marinade that comes up alongside oil and which they plan to treat so it can be used to cool data centers and power plants.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
This leakage carries warm, salty Indian Ocean water around South Africa and into the Atlantic.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026
Aunty Silver offers me a fluffy white rice cake, which tastes like a salty cloud.
From "Born Behind Bars" by Padma Venkatraman
That was particularly true in areas like saltier snacks, said Jocelyn Carter, senior strategic marketing director for private label at ingredient developer Kerry.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 16, 2026
This is a story about AI and chips, but not AI chips—think saltier, a little more crunchy, lower price tag.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
Whether your team chicken, shrimp, or beef, the individual packets are highly concentrated and on the saltier side.
From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026
As warm, salty surface water travels north through the Atlantic, evaporation makes it saltier.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
The waves just kept on coming, larger and harsher and saltier than ever before.
From "X: A Novel" by Ilyasah Shabazz
For instance, McDonald's chicken nuggets are saltiest in the U.S. and even American Coke contains salt, an ingredient it lacks in other countries.
From Salon ● Mar. 12, 2024
And the Oscar for saltiest reaction to the film academy’s new diversity and inclusion requirements goes to...
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2020
With that goal in mind, Pugh, Manda and Andrea Gibbs, the local agriculture agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension, convened at the edge of Pugh’s saltiest field on a recent blustery afternoon.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 1, 2019
The saltiest reminder of this came from Rick Wakeman, Yes’s keyboardist.
From New York Times ● Apr. 8, 2017
Though written almost entirely in an Italian village it has been justly described by an able critic as "one of the saltiest stories ever published."
From The Visionary Pictures From Nordland by Jessie Muir
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
