salve

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   anything that remedies or heals or soothes

   The salve I applied to my sunburn helped to soothe my discomfort.

2. 2
   noun

   Any remedy or action that soothes or heals.

   Your forgiveness was a salve to my conscience and a balm to my wounded ego.

3. 3
   verb

   To calm or assuage.

   She feels guilty for pampering him, and salves her conscience by bossily ordering him to go and fetch the clothes from the line[.]

4. 4
   verb

   To heal by applications or medicaments; to apply salve to; to anoint.

   I do beseech your majesty […] salve the long-grown wounds of my intemperance."

5. 5
   verb

   To heal; to remedy; to cure; to make good.

   But Ebranck salved both their infamies / With noble deedes.

6. 6
   verb

   To salvage.

   The interior woodwork was largely salved from the two cars, as well as the majority of the fittings and seats.

7. 7
   verb

   To resolve (a difficulty); to refute (an objection); to harmonize (an apparent contradiction).

   He which should hold it more rational to make the whole Universe move, and thereby to salve the Earths mobility, is more unreasonable....

8. 8
   verb

   To say “salve” to; to greet; to salute.

   By this that ſtraunger knight in preſence came, / And goodly ſalued them; who nought againe / Him anſwered, as courteſie became, / But with ſterne lookes, and ſtomachous diſdaine, / Gaue ſignes of grudge and diſcontentment vaine: […]

Etymology

From Middle English salve, from Old English sealf, from Proto-West Germanic *salbu, from Proto-Germanic *salbō, from Proto-Indo-European *solp-éh₂, from *selp- (“salve, ointment”). Cognates Cognate with Middle Low German salve (Danish salve, Dutch zalf), Old High German salba (German Salbe), Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌻𐌱𐍉𐌽𐍃 (salbōns), Albanian gjalpë (“butter”), Sanskrit सर्पिस् (sarpís), Ancient Greek ἔλπος (élpos).