Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A tray for serving food or drinks.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who salves or saves goods, a vessel, etc., from destruction or loss by fire, shipwreck, etc.
  • noun A tray, especially a large and heavy one, upon which anything is offered to a person, as in the service of the table.
  • noun One who salves or cures, or one who pretends to cure: as, a quacksalver.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete One who salves, or uses salve as a remedy; hence, a quacksalver, or quack.
  • noun A salvor.
  • noun A tray or waiter on which anything is presented.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One who salves or saves goods, etc. from destruction or loss.
  • noun One who salves or cures.
  • noun One who pretends to cure; quacksalver.
  • noun A tray used to display or serve food.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a tray (or large plate) for serving food or drinks; usually made of silver

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of French salve, from Spanish salva, tasting of food to detect poison, salver, from salvar, to save, taste food to detect poison, from Late Latin salvāre, to save; see salvage.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From salve (“to save”) +‎ -er.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English *salvere, from Old English *sealfere ("salver, one who anoints"), equivalent to salve +‎ -er. Cognate with Dutch zalver ("salver"), German Salber ("salver").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Alteration of Spanish salva ("plate, foretasting of viands prior to serving"), from salvar ("to save, taste food for one's master"), from Latin salvō ("save", v). More at save.

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Examples

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  • From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.

    January 19, 2010