below the salt en · ADP
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
Etymology
See above the salt.
Meanings
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(idiomatic) Common, vulgar; of low standing.
His fashion is not to take knowledge of him that is beneath him in clothes. He never drinks below the salt.
1600 (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Cynthias Reuels, or The Fountayne of Selfe-Loue. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC: