salve

CEFRB2

/sɑːv/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A soothing substance put on sore or damaged skin.

  2. 02

    verb

    To soothe pain or make a difficult feeling better.

Examples

  • The best brand of lip salve, in my opinion, is Burt's Bees.

  • This salve will act as a protective film over the burn.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5

Also pronounced

  • /sæ(l)v/
  • /sælv/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Any remedy or action that soothes or heals.

  2. To calm or assuage.

  3. An ointment, cream, or balm with soothing, healing, or calming effects.

More examples

In context

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

  • [Title:] Tame March PCE inflation no salve after downbeat Q1 US GDP report

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

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

She applied the soothing blank to her sunburned skin to reduce pain.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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).