Meaning

An ointment, cream, or balm with soothing, healing, or calming effects..

Definitions by Sense

1. An ointment, cream, or balm with soothing, healing, or calming effects.
2. Any remedy or action that soothes or heals.
3. (transitive) To calm or assuage.
4. To heal by applications or medicaments; to apply salve to; to anoint.
5. To heal; to remedy; to cure; to make good.
6. (dated) To salvage.
7. (obsolete, astronomy) To save (the appearances or the phenomena); to explain (a celestial phenomenon); to account for (the apparent motions of the celestial bodies).
8. (obsolete) To resolve (a difficulty); to refute (an objection); to harmonize (an apparent contradiction).

Example Sentences

Your forgiveness was a salve to my conscience and a balm to my wounded ego.

[Title:] Tame March PCE inflation no salve after downbeat Q1 US GDP report

She feels guilty for pampering him, and salves her conscience by bossily ordering him to go and fetch the clothes from the line[.]

I do beseech your majesty […] salve the long-grown wounds of my intemperance."

But Ebranck salved both their infamies / With noble deedes.

What may we do, then, to salve this seeming inconsistence?

The interior woodwork was largely salved from the two cars, as well as the majority of the fittings and seats.

He which should hold it more rational to make the whole Universe move, and thereby to salve the Earths mobility, is more unreasonable....

Word Forms

• salves
• salving
• salved

Synonyms for salve

Related Words

When Should You Use Salve?

Use salve when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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