English

Noun

saltie ‎(plural salties)

1. (Australia, informal) A salt-water crocodile (or estuarine crocodile).
   • 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.

   • 2010, Lindsay Marsh, Dangerous Aussie Animals, page 40,

     They like to spend their time in freshwater rivers in coastal waters. Saltwater crocodiles are fiercely territorial and fully mature male salties force younger and smaller salties into the ocean where they have to search for river systems.

   • 2010, Nancy Cushing, Kevin Markwell, Snake-Bitten: Eric Worrell and the Australian Reptile Park, page 94,

     It is feared by those who live near it. For its part, the saltie fears nothing — except a larger crocodile.

   • 2011, A.J. Mackinnon, The Well at the World′s End, page 104,

     For their part, the others had been earnestly pointing out that there were in fact two types of crocodiles, saltwater and freshwater, and that only the salties were dangerous.

2. (Canada, US, nautical) An ocean-going ship that enters the Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence Seaway.
   • “The season's first ships”, in (Please provide the title of the work), Midwest Weekends, April 16, 2015, retrieved July 11, 2015

     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.

Coordinate terms

• (crocodile): freshie
• (ship): laker

Anagrams

• Elista

Latvian

Adjective

saltie

1. nominative plural masculine form of saltais
2. vocative plural masculine form of saltais