salty
Americanadjective
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saltier,
comparative
-
saltiest
superlative
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racy or coarse.
salty humor.
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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
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(esp of humour) sharp; piquant
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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:
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
A future southward movement of the subtropical front could increase the amount of salty water entering the Atlantic.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026
As Banderas plays him, he’s a bearish marvel of a man with the kind of earthy soul that would have had Ernest Hemingway chugging salty dogs on his barstool all night.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
Instead the quiet of the Sunderbans encircled them like the salty, warm night air.
From "Tiger Boy" by Mitali Perkins
Or it could simply be more evidence that New Yorkers are saltier than average sports fans.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2025
The kind of pickles you use also matters, as some brines lean more sweeter, while others are saltier.
From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2025
In recent decades, as the lake shrank and grew saltier than the ocean, nearly all the fish have died and the migratory birds that relied on them for sustenance have become scarce.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 16, 2024
As sea levels rise, coastal groundwater is lifted closer to the ground surface while also becoming saltier and more corrosive.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 15, 2024
But what she brought back was familiar, the dried fish even saltier, and she sang, with an amused expression, the song the women sang at the center.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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
That is why, to me, swimming will always mean swimming in the Pacific, in water that can only be described in extremes: the bluest, the saltiest, the wildest, the least predictable.
From New York Times ● Feb. 4, 2016
And it was a salt well, of the saltiest water I ever tasted.
From The White Crystals Being an Account of the Adventures of Two Boys by Howard Roger Garis
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.
