salad

 
Pronunciation: /ˈsaləd/

noun

  • a cold dish of various mixtures of raw or cooked vegetables, usually seasoned with oil, vinegar, or other dressing and sometimes accompanied by meat, fish, or other ingredients: a green salad [mass noun]: bowls of salad
  • [mass noun, with modifier] a mixture containing a specified ingredient served with a dressing: a red pepper filled with tuna salad
  • a vegetable suitable for eating raw: sow salads like lettuce, radish, and spring onion

Phrases

one's salad days

the period when one is young and inexperienced: the war seemed to be ending and so were my salad days
the peak or heyday of something: journey back to the salad days of the railways
[from Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra i. v. 73]

Origin:

late Middle English: from Old French salade, from Provençal salada, based on Latin sal 'salt'