Saltie
noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A saltwater crocodile. Australia, informal
"1998, Romulus Whitaker, Zai Whitaker, Crocodile Fever: Wildlife Adventures in New Guinea, Orient Longman, India, page 8, ‘Salties’ typically live in and around the coastal mangroves but are not uncommon hundreds of kilometres inland. A saltie grows to around seven metres in length and is the main Asian crocodile responsible for attacks on humans."
- 2 An ocean-going ship that enters the Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence Seaway. Canada, US
"Ah, but when will the first oceangoing boat arrive [in Duluth, Minnesota]? . . . In 2015, the first saltie to arrive was the Malta-flagged Kom, which arrived April 13 with a Bulgarian crew to load durum wheat headed for Italy."
- 3 The saltwater fluke or dab.
Example
More examples"1998, Romulus Whitaker, Zai Whitaker, Crocodile Fever: Wildlife Adventures in New Guinea, Orient Longman, India, page 8, ‘Salties’ typically live in and around the coastal mangroves but are not uncommon hundreds of kilometres inland. A saltie grows to around seven metres in length and is the main Asian crocodile responsible for attacks on humans."
Etymology
From salt + -ie (“diminutive suffix”).
Related phrases
More for "saltie"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.