salad

[sal-uh d]

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noun

a usually cold dish consisting of vegetables, as lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers, covered with a dressing and sometimes containing seafood, meat, or eggs.

any of various dishes consisting of foods, as meat, seafood, eggs, pasta, or fruit, prepared singly or combined, usually cut up, mixed with a dressing, and served cold: chicken salad; potato salad.

any herb or green vegetable, as lettuce, used for salads or eaten raw.

South Midland and Southern U.S. greens(def 22b).

any mixture or assortment: The usual salad of writers, artists, and musicians attended the party.

Origin of salad

1350–1400; Middle English salad(e) < Middle French salade < Old Provençal salada < Vulgar Latin *salāta, feminine past participle of *salāre to salt, equivalent to sal-, stem of sāl salt¹ + -āta -ate¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for salad

coleslaw

Examples from the Web for salad

Contemporary Examples of salad

Before serving, bake the cheese packages, combine the salad and vinaigrette, and serve.
The Barefoot Contessa’s Tasty Trip to Paris
Ina Garten
November 27, 2014
I ordered a salad, ate it, and in the bathroom snuck a swig of Pepto.
I Shot Bin Laden
Elliot Ackerman
November 16, 2014
I managed to keep the salad down, but I left the restaurant hungry.
I Shot Bin Laden
Elliot Ackerman
November 16, 2014
Specifically anti-black animus is not just one ingredient in the “salad bowl” of injustice.
Rand Paul’s Comments on GOP Voter-ID Laws Mark a Turning Point
James Poulos
May 13, 2014
So next time you complain about salad costing a fortune, remember that you could literally get high for less.
America’s Next Agricultural Revolution Will Happen Indoors
Sarah Kunst
April 26, 2014

Historical Examples of salad

The lotus is a leguminous plant—so excellent for the salad—not for the roast.
The Spenders
Harry Leon Wilson
Any salad dressing that is preferred may be served with them.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 4
Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
If the salad is large more oil and more juice should be used.
Her Father's Daughter
Gene Stratton-Porter
Fill your salad bowl with the crisp leaves, from which the flowerhead has been plucked.
Her Father's Daughter
Gene Stratton-Porter
Here is a salad that would have intrigued the palate of Lucullus, himself.
Her Father's Daughter
Gene Stratton-Porter

British Dictionary definitions for salad

salad

noun

a dish of raw vegetables, such as lettuce, tomatoes, etc, served as a separate course with cold meat, eggs, etc, or as part of a main course

any dish of cold vegetables or fruitpotato salad; fruit salad

any green vegetable used in such a dish, esp lettuce

Word Origin for salad

C15: from Old French salade, from Old Provençal salada, from salar to season with salt, from Latin sal salt

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for salad

late 14c., from Old French salade (14c.), from Vulgar Latin *salata, literally "salted," short for herba salata "salted vegetables" (vegetables seasoned with brine, a popular Roman dish), from fem. past participle of *salare "to salt," from Latin sal (genitive salis) "salt" (see salt (n.)).

Dutch salade, German Salat, Swedish salat, Russian salat are from Romanic languages. Salad days, "time of youthful inexperience" (perhaps on notion of "green") is first recorded 1606 in Shakespeare and probably owes its survival, if not its existence, to him. Salad bar first attested 1940, American English.