save

From Middle English saven, sauven, a borrowing from Old French sauver, from Late Latin salvāre (“to save”).

• enPR: sāv, IPA^(key): /seɪv/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪv

save (third-person singular simple present saves, present participle saving, simple past and past participle saved)

1. (transitive) To prevent harm or difficulty.
   1. To help (somebody) to survive, or rescue (somebody or something) from harm.

      She was saved from drowning by a passer-by.

      We were able to save a few of our possessions from the house fire.

      • 1980 March 7, Billy Joel, “You May Be Right”, in Glass Houses‎^[1]:

        Turn out the light
        Don't try to save me
        You may be wrong for all I know
        But you may be right

      • 2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891:

        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.

   2. To keep (something) safe; to safeguard.
      • 1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

        Thou hast […] quitted all to save / A world from utter loss.

      • 2004, George Carlin, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?‎^[2], New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 132:

        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.

   3. To spare (somebody) from effort, or from something undesirable.
      • 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

        I'll save you / That labour, sir. All's now done.

   4. (Christianity) To redeem or protect someone from eternal damnation.

      Jesus Christ came to save sinners.

   5. (sports) To catch or deflect (a shot at goal).
      • 2012, Chelsea 6-0 Wolves‎^[3]:

        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.

   6. (baseball) 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.
2. To put aside; to avoid.
   1. (transitive) To store for future use.

      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.

   2. (transitive) To conserve or prevent the wasting of.

      Save electricity by turning off the lights when you leave the room.

      • 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part I, London: Collins, →ISBN:

        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’.

      • 2019 May 21, Dylan Curran, “Facial recognition will soon be everywhere. Are we prepared?”, in The Guardian‎^[4]:

        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.

   3. (transitive) To obviate or make unnecessary.
      • 1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Fryar: Or, the Double Discovery. […], London: […] Richard Tonson and Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page number):

        Will you not speak to save a lady's blush?

   4. (transitive, intransitive, computing, video games) To write a file to disk or other storage medium.

      Where did I save that document? I can't find it on the desktop.

   6. (intransitive) To economize or avoid waste.
   7. (transitive and intransitive) To accumulate money or valuables.
   8. (transitive, gambling, slang, archaic) 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.

      to save a fiver

   9. (reflexive, often with "for") To refrain from romantic or (especially in later use) sexual relationships until one is married or is with a suitable partner.

      She told me she's saving herself for marriage.

      • 2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Tempest:

        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".

   10. (informal) To avoid saying something.

       Save your excuses and lies.

       • 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 206:

         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.

• In computing sense “to write a file”, also used as phrasal verb save down informally. Compare other computing phrasal verbs such as print out and close out.

save (plural saves)

1. An instance of preventing (further) harm or difficulty.
   • 2020 November 18, Drachinifel, 0:34 from the start, in The Salvage of Pearl Harbor Pt 2 - Up She Rises!‎^[5], archived from the original on 22 October 2022:

     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.

   1. In various sports, a block that prevents an opponent from scoring.

      The goaltender made a great save.

      • 2010 December 29, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0 - 1 Wolverhampton”, in BBC‎^[6]:

        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.

   2. (baseball) A successful attempt by a relief pitcher to preserve the win of another pitcher on one's team.

      Jones retired seven to earn the save.

   3. (professional wrestling, slang) 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.

      The giant wrestler continued to beat down his smaller opponent, until several wrestlers ran in for the save.

   4. (informal) An action that brings one back out of an awkward situation.

      Nice save.

2. (computing) The act, process, or result of saving data to a storage medium.

   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.

3. (roleplaying games) A saving throw.

save

1. Except; with the exception of.
   • 2004, David Carpenter, The Penguin History of Britain: The Struggle for Mastery, Penguin Books:

     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.

• saving, barring, except for, save for; see also Thesaurus:except

save

1. unless; except
   • 2009, Nicolas Brooke (translator), French Code of Civil Procedure in English 2008, Article 1 of Book One, quoted after: 2016, Laverne Jacobs and Sasha Baglay, The Nature of Inquisitorial Processes in Administrative Regimes: Global Perspectives, published by Routledge (first published in 2013 by Ashgate Publishing), p. 8:

     Only the parties may institute proceedings, save where the law shall provide otherwise.

   • 1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter III (Accessory After the Fact), page 382, column 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.

• a prophet is not without honor save in his own country
• save vs.
• save as

• “save, v.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
• (make a gambling agreement): John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

• “save”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “save”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “save”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “save”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.

• AEVs, Aves, vase, VASE, aves, Veas, vaes, seva, Esav, VAEs, VESA

French savez (“you know”) and English savvy have been suggested as origins, but Charpentier considers Portuguese sabe (“know”), influenced by its Spanish cognate, more likely. Compare Tok Pisin save.

save

1. to know
2. to be able to

   mi no save kam : I can't come

   mi save toktok Francis : I can speak French

• Claire Moyse-Faurie, Borrowings from Romance languages in Oceanic languages, in Aspects of Language Contact (2008, →ISBN

• IPA^(key): /saːvə/, [ˈsæːʋə], [ˈsæːʊ]
• Rhymes: -aːvə

From Old Norse saga, from Proto-Germanic *sagōną, cognate with Swedish såga, English saw, German sägen, Dutch zagen. Derived from the noun *sagō (Danish sav).

save (past tense savede, past participle savet)

1. to saw

• “save” in Den Danske Ordbog

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

save c

1. indefinite plural of sav

save

1. Alternative form of sauf

save

1. Alternative form of sauf

save

1. Alternative form of sauf

save

1. Alternative form of sauf

save

1. Alternative form of saven

• (Kautokeino) IPA^(key): /ˈsave/

save

1. inflection of savvit:
   1. present indicative connegative
   2. second-person singular imperative
   3. imperative connegative

Unadapted borrowing from English save.

save m or f (plural saves)

1. (informal, gaming) save file (of a video game or computer game)

   Eu cheguei mesmo na última fase, mas perdi meu save então terei que começar o jogo de novo.

   I did reach the final level, but I lost my save file so I'm gonna have to start the game over.

   • 2005, Equipe Digerati, Dicas Arrasadoras Para Playstation, Universo dos Livros Editora, →ISBN, page 80:

     Insira um memory card no console com um save do jogo Shinobi.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

From Portuguese sabe (“know”). Compare Bislama save.

save

1. (transitive) to know
2. (transitive) to understand
   • 1989, Buk Baibel long Tok Pisin, Port Moresby: Bible Society of Papua New Guinea, Jenesis 18:21:

     Olsem na bai mi go daun na lukim pasin ol dispela manmeri i mekim. Na bai mi ken save, ol dispela tok mi harim pinis, em i tru o nogat.

     →New International Version translation

3. (transitive) to make a practice or habit of
4. (transitive) to learn
   • 1989, Buk Baibel long Tok Pisin, Port Moresby: Bible Society of Papua New Guinea, Jenesis 3:22:

     Bihain God, Bikpela i tok, “Man i save pinis long wanem samting i gutpela na wanem samting i nogut, na em i kamap wankain olsem yumi. Orait yumi no ken larim em i go klostu long dispela diwai bilong givim laip. Nogut em i kaikai pikinini bilong dispela diwai tu na em i stap oltaim.”

     →New International Version translation

• luksave

save

1. habitually
   • 1989, Buk Baibel long Tok Pisin, Port Moresby: Bible Society of Papua New Guinea, Jenesis 1:2:

     Tasol graun i no bin i stap olsem yumi save lukim nau.

     →New International Version translation

save

1. knowledge
   • 1989, Buk Baibel long Tok Pisin, Port Moresby: Bible Society of Papua New Guinea, Jenesis 2:9:

     Na i gat narapela diwai tu i stap, em diwai bilong givim gutpela save long wanem samting i gutpela na wanem samting i nogut.

     →New International Version translation