saltthemine (third-person singular simple presentsalts the mine,present participlesalting the mine,simple past and past participlesalted the mine)
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically:seesalt,the,mine.
1989, John Burke,The Legend of Baby Doe: The Life and Times of the Silver Queen of the West, U of Nebraska Press,→ISBN, page53:He then discovered that Lovell hadsalted the mine with ore from the Little Pittsburgh.
2000, Robert Greene,The 48 Laws of Power, Penguin Books, page159:They thensalted the “mine” with these gems, which the first expert dug up and brought to San Francisco.
2014, Harriet Hudson,The Wooing of Katie May, Hachette UK,→ISBN:Smith had merely dug a shaft,salted the mine with a good grade ore, in order to lure Jeremiah into purchasing.
2010, Michael Stanley,A Carrion Death, Hachette UK,→ISBN:"Ferraz thensalted the mine with the quality diamonds from Angola," Kubu continued, "making it look as though De Beers had made a mistake."
- (by extension) To set up aconfidence trick; to plant false evidence of thevalue of something.
1954, P.G. Wodehouse,Bertie Wooster Sees It Through, Simon and Schuster,→ISBN, page86:"Yes. I thought it would be a shrewd move tosalt the mine." I didn't get this. She seemed to me an aunt who was talking in riddles.
2005, Paul Lindsay,The Big Scam: A Novel of the FBI, Simon and Schuster,→ISBN, page275:“Salting the mine. We'llsalt the mine.” Egan still didn't seem to understand. “You college boys, all that training and you can't see the nose on your face. We'll plant a body.”
2006, Steven T. Katz, Alan Rosen, Elie Wiesel,Obliged by Memory: Literature, Religion, Ethics, Syracuse University Press,→ISBN, page64:Historians are duty bound never tosalt the mine of history by the creation of ersatz facts introduced to fulfill their preconceived ideas.
2007, Ira Nottonson,Forming a Partnership : And Making It Work, Entrepreneur Press,→ISBN, page 4:His rationale was the same: these were amenities that a salesperson needed tosalt the mine and make the right impression on customers.
