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• attic salt
  attic salt

  noun

  dry, delicate wit.
• Attic salt
  Attic salt

  noun

  refined incisive wit

attic salt

American  

noun

1. dry, delicate wit.

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Attic salt British  

noun

1. refined incisive wit

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Etymology

Origin of attic salt

First recorded in 1750–60

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

attic salt Attic salt

Alas, if I had only taken the supposed rapidity of my progress with a grain of attic salt!

From Atlantic Classics by Various

There would not be enough attic salt in it to save it.

From Love, Life & Work Being a Book of Opinions Reasonably Good-Natured Concerning How to Attain the Highest Happiness for One's Self with the Least Possible Harm to Others by Hubbard, Elbert

Between the acts, our two Greek statues criticised the audience in loud tones, and their remarks, seasoned with attic salt, afforded a peculiar supplement to the choir of Antigone.

From The Cross of Berny by Fendall, Florence

There is the attic salt which springs from the charm in the words, from the flash of wit, from the spirited and brilliant sally.

From Book of Wise Sayings Selected Largely from Eastern Sources by Clouston, William Alexander

What he really needs is a pinch of Attic salt.

From Time Magazine Archive

They made a butt of him as it was; he felt he could never stand between them for a whole morning now, and have Attic salt put upon his wounds.

From Children of the Ghetto A Study of a Peculiar People by Zangwill, Israel

As there is a tradition that birds may be caught by sprinkling salt upon their tails, so the best and the most numerous dinners are secured by a judicious management of Attic salt.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, August 21, 1841 by Various

It is throughout seasoned with Attic salt, and I think you will find the taste of it tolerably good.

From The Learned Women by Wall, Charles Heron

Cæsar, who must have been the wag among barristers of his day, undertakes to give examples of that Attic salt by which the profundity of the law courts is supposed to have been relieved.

From The Life of Cicero Volume II. by Trollope, Anthony