What does "salve" mean?
Salve: An adhesive composition or substance to be applied to wounds or sores; a healing ointment. Chaucer.
Additional senses
- 2.A soothing remedy or antidote. Counsel or consolation we may bring. Salve to thy sores. Milton. Salve bug (Zoöl.), a large, stout isopod crustacean (Æga psora), parasitic on the halibut and codfish, -- used by fishermen in the preparation of a salve. It becomes about two inches in length.
- 3.To heal by applications or medicaments; to cure by remedial traetment; to apply salve to; as, to salve a wound. Shak.
- 4.To heal; to remedy; to cure; to make good; to soothe, as with an ointment, especially by some device, trick, or quibble; to gloss over. But Ebranck salved both their infamies With noble deeds. Spenser. What may we do, then, to salve this seeming inconsistence Milton.
- 5.To save, as a ship or goods, from the perils of the sea. [Recent]
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00