salt junk

American  

noun

Nautical Slang.

1. salted beef or pork.

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Etymology

Origin of salt junk

First recorded in 1785–95

Example Sentences

Their seamen, to earn a little salt junk and flinty biscuits, must spread themselves like vagabonds over the face of the earth, and enter the service of any nation.

From Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812 Volume 1 by Mahan, A. T. (Alfred Thayer)

He utterly refused to eat salt junk, and would not have been permitted to use tobacco even had he been so inclined, which he was not.

From The Red Eric by Ballantyne, R. M. (Robert Michael)

I am as happy in anticipation of hard-tack and salt junk for to-morrow's dinner, as many that count on roast turkey and "fixings".

From An Artilleryman's Diary by Jones, Jenkins Lloyd

Then that relieves my heart of a great pressure, which has sat there ever since I had salt junk for breakfast.

From The Golden Rock by Glanville, Ernest

Well, we touched at Saint Helena, and right glad old Bengal was, no doubt, for we had got short of chickens—the only delicacies he seemed to relish—and he couldn't be coaxed to touch salt junk.

From Los Gringos Or, An Inside View of Mexico and California, with Wanderings in Peru, Chili, and Polynesia by Wise, H. A. (Henry Augustus)