save-all

[seyv-awl]

noun

1. a means, contrivance, or receptacle for preventing loss or waste.

2. Older Use.,  overalls.

3. Nautical.

   1. a net secured between a pier and a ship, beneath cargo being transferred from one to the other.

   2. a sail for utilizing wind spilled from the regular sails of a vessel: used in very light winds.

save-all

noun

1. a device to prevent waste or loss

2. nautical

   1. a net used while loading a ship

   2. a light sail set to catch wind spilling from another sail

3. dialect,  overalls or a pinafore

4. a dialect word for miser 1

Word History and Origins

Origin of save-all¹

First recorded in 1635–45; noun use of verb phrase save all

Example Sentences

As significant an improvement as it would be, a public option is still not a save-all for our health-care system.

Read more on Time

“Much like chemotherapy and radiotherapy, it’s not going to be a save-all,” Riddell said of the new therapy, adding: “I think immunotherapy has finally made it to a pillar of cancer therapy.”

Read more on The Guardian

Despite the evidence suggesting TASERs need to be used judiciously, officers faith in the save-all nature of the weapons has lead to what some criminologists call “lazy cop syndrome.”

Read more on MSNBC

In the 1960s, for example, “concrete was seen as the great save-all — it’s taken years to remove old restorations,” said Antonio Varone, a former director of the excavations at Pompeii.

Read more on New York Times

D Dairy, the business of, generally carried on as a save-all, 96.

Read more on Project Gutenberg