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salve

[sav, sahv]

Example Sentences Origin

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noun

a medicinal ointment for healing or relieving wounds and sores.

anything that soothes, mollifies, or relieves.

verb (used with object)

to soothe with or as if with salve; assuage: to salve one's conscience.

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Salve is one of our favorite verbs.

So is lollygag. Does it mean:

to flee; abscond:

to spend time idly; loaf.

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Origin:
before 900; (noun) Middle English; Old English sealf; cognate with German Salbe salve, Sanskrit sarpis melted butter; (v.) Middle English salven, Old English sealfian

Synonyms
3. ease, alleviate, mollify.

Example Sentences

It is a president's responsibility to salve a national wound.

Even hard-headed zoologists consider them downright, drop-dead gorgeous, a bit of salve on the ecological wounds of our world.

Interest-rate cuts are a salve for debtors and a penalty on savers.

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Dictionary.com Unabridged

verb (used without object), verb (used with object), salved, salv·ing.

to save from loss or destruction; to salvage.

Origin:
1700–10; back formation from salvage

interjection

hail!

Origin:
1400–50; late Middle English < Latin salvē! literally, be in good health!; compare salute

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To salve

Collins

World English Dictionary

salve¹ (sælv, sɑːv)

—n
1.	an ointment for wounds, sores, etc
2.	anything that heals or soothes

—vb
3.	to apply salve to (a wound, sore, etc)
4.	to soothe, comfort, or appease

[Old English sealf; related to Old High German salba, Greek elpos oil, Sanskrit sarpis lard]

salve² (sælv)

—vb
1.	a less common word for salvage
2.	an archaic word for save

[C18: from salvage]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

salve

O.E. sealf "healing ointment," from W.Gmc. *salbo- "oily substance" (cf. O.S. salba, M.Du. salve, Du. zalf, O.H.G. salba, Ger. salbe "ointment"), from PIE *solpa-, from base *selp- "fat, butter" (cf. Gk. elpos "fat, oil," Skt. sarpis "melted butter"). The figurative sense of "something to soothe wounded

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pride, etc." is from 1736. The verb is O.E. sealfian "anoint (a wound) with salve," from P.Gmc. *salbojanan (cf. Du. zalven, Ger. salben, Goth. salbon "to anoint").

COLLAPSE

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

salve (sāv, säv)
n.
An analgesic or medicinal ointment.

salve v.