Etimology
From Middle English saven, sauven, a borrowing from Old French sauver, from Late Latin salvāre (“to save”).
verb
save (third-person singular simple present saves, present participle saving, simple past and past participle saved)
(transitive) To prevent harm or difficulty.
To put aside; to avoid.
Examples
She was saved from drowning by a passer-by.
We were able to save a few of our possessions from the house fire.
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.
Thou hast […] quitted all to save / A world from utter loss.
IF IT SAVES JUST ONE LIFEYou often hear a new policy or procedure justified by the specious idea that "If it saves the life of just one , 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.
I'll save you / That labour, sir. All's now done.
Jesus Christ came to save sinners.
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.
Coordinate terms: lay aside, lay away, lay by, lay in, lay up, put aside, put away, put by, store away, store up
Let's save the packaging in case we need to send the product back.
Save electricity by turning off the lights when you leave the room.
An indulgent playmate, Grannie would lay aside the long scratchy-looking letter she was writing 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.
Will you not speak to save a lady's blush?
Where did I save that document? I can't find it on the desktop.
to save a fiver
She told me she's saving herself for marriage.
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".
Save your excuses and lies.
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
save (plural saves)
An instance of preventing (further) harm or difficulty.
(computing) The act, process, or result of saving data to a storage medium.
(roleplaying games) A saving throw.
Examples
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 Tennessee's 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.
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.
Jones retired seven to earn the save.
The giant wrestler continued to beat down his smaller opponent, until several wrestlers ran in for the save.
Nice save.
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.
preposition
save
Except; with the exception of.
Examples
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.
Related words
synonyms
barring, except for, save for; see also Thesaurus:except
conjunction
save
unless; except
Examples
Only the parties may institute proceedings, save where the law shall provide otherwise.
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.