Meanings
- simileVery quickly and thoroughly.
After five minutes' conversation with me the old folks would penetrate the deception like a dose of salts.
1949, P.G. Wodehouse, The Mating Season3 more examples
Every so often a mass campaign swept the country like a dose of salts, and officials, writers, artists, people in the public eye were purged and flushed out on a tidal wave of hysteria.
2009, Esther Cheo Ying, Black Country to Red China, →ISBNCarew, a notorious axeman, had just gone through a neighbouring regional station like a dose of salts, restructuring and streamlining, as he liked to call it.
2010, Coleen Nolan, Envy, →ISBNShe was a bit concerned about the old woman getting down on her knees because of her complaints about rheumatism, but ever since Becky had dropped her off, the maid had not stopped working and had gone through the hotel like a dose of salts.
2015, June Francis, A Mother's Duty, →ISBN, page 212
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
From the laxative properties of Epsom salts.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
like a dose of salts. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/like%20a%20dose%20of%20salts
“like a dose of salts.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/like%20a%20dose%20of%20salts. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “like a dose of salts,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/like%20a%20dose%20of%20salts.
Source: like a dose of salts on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.