Pronunciations (5)
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/seɪv/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
- Received-Pronunciation
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/sæɪv/
Pronunciation notes
- Australia
- New-Zealand
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/sev/
Pronunciation notes
- Scotland
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/seːv/
Pronunciation notes
- Wales
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seɪv
Verb
To prevent harm or difficulty. To help (somebody) to survive, or rescue (somebody or something) from harm.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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She was saved from drowning by a passer-by.
We were able to save a few of our possessions from the house fire.
More examples (2)
Turn out the light Don't try to save me You may be wrong for all I know But you may be right
One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.
To prevent harm or difficulty. To keep (something) safe; to safeguard.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Thou hast[…]quitted all to save / A world from utter loss.
More examples (1)
IF IT SAVES JUST ONE LIFE You often hear a new policy or procedure justified by the specious idea that "If it saves the life of just one (insert here 'child' or 'American soldier'), it will be worth it." Well, maybe not. Maybe a closer look would show that the cost in time, money or inconvenience would be much too high to justify merely saving one life. What's wrong with looking at it like that? Governments and corporations make those calculations all the time.
To prevent harm or difficulty. To spare (somebody) from effort, or from something undesirable.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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I'll save you / That labour, sir. All's now done.
To prevent harm or difficulty. To redeem or protect someone from eternal damnation.
Usage- especially
- Transitive
- Examples
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Jesus Christ came to save sinners.
To prevent harm or difficulty. To catch or deflect (a shot at goal).
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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More examples (1)
Chelsea's youngsters, who looked lively throughout, then combined for the second goal in the seventh minute. Romeu's shot was saved by Wolves goalkeeper Dorus de Vries but Piazon kept the ball alive and turned it back for an unmarked Bertrand to blast home.
To prevent harm or difficulty. To preserve, as a relief pitcher, (a win of another pitcher's on one's team) by defending the lead held when the other pitcher left the game.
Usage- Transitive
To put aside; to avoid. To store for future use.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Let's save the packaging in case we need to send the product back.
To put aside; to avoid. To conserve or prevent the wasting of.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Save electricity by turning off the lights when you leave the room.
More examples (3)
An indulgent playmate, Grannie would lay aside the long scratchy-looking letter she was writing (heavily crossed ‘to save notepaper’) and enter into the delightful pastime of ‘a chicken from Mr Whiteley's’.
However, we’ve reached the stage where our technological leaps and bounds no longer save us hours, or even minutes – they shave only seconds from our day-to-day tasks.
So far, $75 billion in private investment from defense companies who are now investing in new plants, new equipment, new assembly lines to build the munitions of the future faster than ever possible. That’s saving taxpayer dollars.
To put aside; to avoid. To obviate or make unnecessary.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Will you not speak to save a lady's blush?
To put aside; to avoid. To write a file to disk or other storage medium.
Usage- Intransitive
- Transitive
- Examples
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Where did I save that document? I can't find it on the desktop.
You can only save your current session at the Presidential Seals scattererd throughout the game.
To put aside; to avoid. To economize or avoid waste.
Usage- Intransitive
To put aside; to avoid. To accumulate money or valuables.
Usage- Intransitive
- Transitive
To put aside; to avoid. To make an agreement to give (some amount of money) to a fellow gambler if one wins, and to receive that amount from them if they win, as a form of hedging.
Usage- Archaic
- Slang
- Transitive
- Examples
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to save a fiver
To put aside; to avoid. To refrain from romantic or (especially in later use) sexual relationships until one is married or is with a suitable partner.
Usage- often
- Reflexive
- with “for”
- Examples
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She told me she's saving herself for marriage.
More examples (1)
Ryder: Come on—you two were intimate, right? Peebee: Take a wild guess. Why are people so hung up on sex? It's a natural expression of attraction. Peebee: We were doing exciting, daring, irreverent things. It stirs stuff up. Like shaking up a bottle of champagne, you know? Peebee: You should know, better than anyone... Peebee: I'm not the type to "save myself".
To put aside; to avoid. To avoid saying something.
Usage- Informal
- Examples
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Save your excuses and lies.
More examples (1)
School days went by. I ran across Sly a couple a times, but I wasn't in no mood to talk. He could save all that philosophical bullshit he liked to holla. Didn't nobody need to tell me what was up.
Noun
An instance of preventing (further) harm or difficulty.
- Examples
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More examples (2)
As 1942 began, work was now continuing apace on getting the ships back afloat and into dock. The first good news in this regard was West Virginia. Thanks to a combination of Tennessees unintentional save' and the crew's own efforts, she'd settled upright, and so divers estimated that, if the various holes could be patched and pumping done in a sensible order from the top down, she should just rise back up to the surface on an even keel, which, in turn, meant that a lot of the initial work on removing her main battery could now be stopped.
It is no coincidence that two of the four 'saves' on our tour connect with the early days of the Stockton & Darlington Railway (S&DR), where restoration has also been helped by recent research that explains further why these saves are so significant.
An instance of preventing (further) harm or difficulty. In various sports, a block that prevents an opponent from scoring.
- Examples
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The goaltender made a great save.
Wolves defender Ronald Zubar was slightly closer with his shot on the turn as he forced Pepe Reina, on his 200th Premier League appearance, into a low save.
An instance of preventing (further) harm or difficulty. A successful attempt by a relief pitcher to preserve the win of another pitcher on one's team.
- Examples
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Jones retired seven to earn the save.
An instance of preventing (further) harm or difficulty. A point in a professional wrestling match when one or more wrestlers run to the ring to aid a fellow wrestler who is being beaten.
Usage- Slang
- Examples
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The giant wrestler continued to beat down his smaller opponent, until several wrestlers ran in for the save.
An instance of preventing (further) harm or difficulty. An action that brings one back out of an awkward situation.
Usage- Informal
- Examples
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Nice save.
The act, process, or result of saving data to a storage medium.
- Examples
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If you're hit by a power cut, you'll lose all of your changes since your last save.
The game console can store up to eight saves on a single cartridge.
A saving throw.
Preposition
Except; with the exception of.
- Synonyms
- Examples
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Under the terms of the Interdict no church services and offices were to be permitted save the baptism of infants and the confession of the dying.
Conjunction
Unless; except.
- Examples
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Only the parties may institute proceedings, save where the law shall provide otherwise.
More examples (1)
Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
Noun
(sports) the act of preventing the opposition from scoring
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the goalie made a brilliant save
the relief pitcher got credit for a save
Verb
save from ruin, destruction, or harm
to keep up and reserve for personal or special use
- Synonyms
- Examples
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She saved the old family photographs in a drawer
bring into safety
- Examples
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We pulled through most of the victims of the bomb attack
spend less; buy at a reduced price
accumulate money for future use
- Examples
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He saves half his salary
make unnecessary an expenditure or effort
- Synonyms
- Examples
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This will save money
I'll save you the trouble
More examples (1)
This will save you a lot of time
save from sins
- Broader terms
refrain from harming
- Synonyms
spend sparingly, avoid the waste of
- Examples
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This move will save money
The less fortunate will have to economize now
retain rights to
- Examples
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keep my job for me while I give birth
keep my seat, please
More examples (1)
keep open the possibility of a merger
record data on a computer
- Synonyms
- Examples
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boot-up instructions are written on the hard disk