salt v OED ~ v1 1 (1634 quot) for sense 1.
1 To apply salt to split cod-fish as a preservative. See also HEAVY SALT, LIGHT a: LIGHT-SALT.
[1581] 1895 PROWSE 56 This Act ... shall not extend or be prejudicial to any providing or bringing of fish in or out of the country of Iceland, Shetland or Newfoundland or any parts or seas thereto adjoining ... nor to any fish that shall be killed taken and salted by the Queen's Natural Subjects. 1620 WHITBOURNE 38-9 And I am well assured, that such fish as is salted with the finest white salt, will sell farre better in Sivill, and other places of Spaine and lialie, then that which is preserved with any other kinde of muddie salt. 1758 ULLOA 407 The fish ... are opened with one cut lengthwise, their back-bone, and all their entrails are taken out ... and the offals thrown into the sea. While some open, others salt, and others again e up. 1819 ANSPACH 433 Fish properly salted, when dry, will be firm and may be handled without breaking. 1866 WILSON 210 When the drudge-barrow is full, it is dragged to the upper end of the stage, where the fish is taken out and salted. 1936 SMITH 83 I asked him if he would undertake to split, salt, dry and ship whatever fish I might get, at so much per quintal. T 43-64 Whether 'tis in the stage or if 'tis in the schooner ... the salter would come ... an' salt it. 1975 Evening Telegram 2 July, p. 3 I've never had to salt for the past couple of years,' the young man said, 'but otherwise I'd have to throw the fish away.' 1981 ibid 5 Sep, p. 7 Men and women [on the Labrador side of the Strait of Belle Isle] are employed salting the fish, after which it is transported by truck or boat.
2 To apply salt to a corpse, or immerse the body in brine, for later burial; sometimes with in. Cp naval practice implied at NELSON phr drink [rum] off the one-eyed hero.
P 243-56 In 1948 one of the crew on the Labrador died and I salted him in a box the boys made, then shipped him home on the coastal boat. T 1-61 If they died very far out at sea, you know, they'd be long getting home; they salt them in. If 'twas in the summer they'd have to. 1977 Decks Awash vi (3), p. 55 [He] succumbed [to typhoid fever] and died there... I went over and made a box with a little help and we salted Martin in his box.
3 To apply chipped ice to (a) seal pelts, (b) a corpse, as a preservative; often with down.
1924 ENGLAND 39-40 'If a man die,' the carpenter informed me, 'us builds un a coffin out o' pound boards, an' salt un down [ice him], an' putt un de Marconi house or the fo'c's'le 'eed.' He said it as if mentioning a side of beef. Ibid 320 Salt down. To ice [seal pelts].
4 salt for labrador: to apply salt liberally, as in the production of LABRADOR fish.
P 59-64 We say that people who put a lot of salt on food are salting for Labrador.
