salve
1 Americannoun
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salves
plural
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a medicinal ointment for healing or relieving wounds and sores.
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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:
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
But it can feel like a salve to the lover girl part of your soul, if you let it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2026
Cheaper money is always a salve for the economy.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 23, 2025
Still, I wondered whether skin grafts could have achieved what Mother had with her comfrey and lobelia salve.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
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
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
The wounds and salves of family life, in particular the abrasions of matrimony, are Baumbach’s specialty.
From New York Times ● Nov. 23, 2022
The ship’s doctor checked each one of them carefully, applying salves to their many wounds and giving medicine to those who appeared to be sickly.
From "Copper Sun" by Sharon M. Draper
Any spectators feeling short-changed would have been salved by Hatton v Flint, a high-energy and bruising encounter.
From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2024
If paper could have salved our wounds, we would have been healed.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 5, 2021
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
His right hand, though it had been salved and bound, was burned on palm and fingers.
From "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin
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
Presidents who take office after periods of searing national trauma often reach for messages of healing and unity, but actually salving the sores of political and social division takes more than rhetoric.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 25, 2021
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
Maybe when dad left it was so painful that I ended up salving the wound with memories, to protect myself from the first time in my life I realized that dad might not come back.
From Salon ● May 21, 2017
I wondered if the world outside was so bad for us that we had to counter it among ourselves by salving one another with kindness.
From "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin
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.
