salve
1 Americannoun
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salves
plural
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a medicinal ointment for healing or relieving wounds and sores.
-
anything that soothes, mollifies, or relieves.
verb (used with object)
verb (used with or without object)
interjection
noun
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an ointment for wounds, sores, etc
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anything that heals or soothes
verb
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to apply salve to (a wound, sore, etc)
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to soothe, comfort, or appease
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of salve1
First recorded before 900; Middle English noun salve, salwe, salf(e), Old English sealf, salf; cognate with German Salbe “ointment, salve,” Sanskrit sarpís “melted butter, fat”; verb derivative of the noun
Origin of salve2
First recorded in 1700–10; back formation from salvage
Origin of salve3
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Latin salvē! literally, “be in good health!”; cf. salute
Explanation
A salve is something that soothes. You can use an ointment as a salve for an itchy rash, or maybe your kind words can act as a salve to comfort a heartsick friend. In some parts of the world, people pronounce salve the way it's spelled, but in the U.S. the correct pronunciation has a silent L. You can use this word for things that make people feel better — not just ointment: "A hot cup of tea is a salve for me." And you can also use it as a verb: "The nurse will salve your wounds now." Salve comes from a Proto-Indo-European root that means "fat" or "butter."
Vocabulary lists containing salve
Much Ado About Nothing
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The Diary of a Young Girl
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Fallen Angels
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But for Kusama, art wasn’t a path chosen for fame and fortune; art was a sublimation and a salve for her compulsive tendencies and psychotic episodes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Drinks offer a clear bridge between the desire to buy a little treat and to not spend too much in one go, the perfect recession-fueled nihilism salve.
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026
But these interventions appear to be no salve for investors.
From Barron's ● May 27, 2026
Cheaper money is always a salve for the economy.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 23, 2025
Instead, he said, “That’s the best method, I suppose. And your salve has a nice herbal odor. We’ll rub some of it on our upper lips, so it will block that foul smell.”
From "Messenger" by Lois Lowry
That feel especially valid at a time when we have plenty of shoppable salves to soothe midlife crisis ego death in whatever forms that it takes.
From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026
In the videos, the TV personality, who is the daughter of rocker Ozzy Osbourne, applied various salves and bandages to Wilson’s injuries, gave him a sponge bath and helped remove burnt skin from his face.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2024
Robinson ordered bandages, dressings, salves and creams online, but it was clear Dwelaniyah was in agony.
From BBC ● Mar. 21, 2024
For topical preparations, Extracts are incorporated into many skin products: soaps, creams, ointments, salves, and lotions with various concentrations of calendula.
From National Geographic ● Feb. 7, 2024
Always when he used to come in with his family to see Daisy he would have himself examined and take home medicine and salves for the whole group of them.
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
Any spectators feeling short-changed would have been salved by Hatton v Flint, a high-energy and bruising encounter.
From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2024
Some involve personal lapses, which may be salved with a show of humility and contrition.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2022
After Gore’s defeat, Klain salved his wounds in classic Washington fashion: by making tons of cash.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 18, 2021
The area would obviously be free territory if it ever joined the American Union, so northern Democrats salved their discomfort over Texas with the belligerent chant “fifty-four forty or fight!”
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018
All the time they were to go on bleeding, turn about, until the best knight in the world had tended them and salved them with his hands.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
The mayor also organized a community street dinner that brought together dozens of Jewish and Arab community leaders, again salving the anger.
From New York Times ● Jul. 23, 2022
But it is only one case, one salving.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 26, 2021
And Wall was salving the implosion of Gilbert Arenas.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 3, 2020
In the Seven Years’ War, Britain and Spain had taken France’s American empire, so American independence could even the score by salving French pride and injuring British commerce.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018
It was not my intention to hurt or humiliate her; the irony of it was that the plan I conceived had as its purpose the salving of Granny’s frustrated feelings toward me.
From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
