salty
Americanadjective
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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:
Utz Brands has agreed to be taken private by German salty snacks maker Intersnack Group at an enterprise value of about $2.9 billion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
It’s both salty and sweet, without feeling overpowering on either end of the flavor scale.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026
That is the feedback loop: the current helps keep the North Atlantic salty enough for the current to keep running.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
Paramount Caviar’s kosher salmon roe adds a delicious salty, briny pop to deviled eggs, hash browns with whipped cream cheese and dill, or toast points with crème fraîche.
From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2026
Some damp air gusts in, and the room fills suddenly with the salty smell of the ocean.
From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy
Scientists wanted to determine how salinity affects ichthyocarbonate production, which is known to increase as fish adjust to saltier conditions through normal osmoregulation.
From Science Daily ● May 31, 2026
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 lake, which is about two and a half times saltier than the ocean, is located at the base of the Eastern Sierra, where the mountains meet the Great Basin Desert.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2025
One issue is that the saltier ice may melt more quickly in the summer.
From BBC ● Mar. 15, 2024
The waves just kept on coming, larger and harsher and saltier than ever before.
From "X: A Novel" by Ilyasah Shabazz
Stewart did not refrain from expressing this opinion in the saltiest terms on-air, especially to Carlson, the show’s co-host who was cast as the overgrown college Republican with odious views and a polka dot bowtie.
From Salon ● Feb. 2, 2026
The saltiest language — some of it referring to Heard — was silenced on Court TV, which is broadcasting the trial live.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 21, 2022
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 Muir, Jessie
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.
