Definitions

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

  • noun An evergreen Eurasian shrub (Juniperus sabina) having brownish-blue seed-bearing cones and young shoots that yield an oil formerly used medicinally.
  • noun Any of several related plants, especially the eastern red cedar.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A European tree or shrub, Juniperus Sabina.
  • noun A drug consisting of savin-tops. See def. 1.

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

  • noun A coniferous shrub (Juniperus Sabina) of Western Asia, occasionally found also in the northern parts of the United States and in British America. It is a compact bush, with dark-colored foliage, and produces small berries having a glaucous bloom. Its bitter, acrid tops are sometimes used in medicine for gout, amenorrhœa, etc.
  • noun The North American red cedar (Juniperus Virginiana.)

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

  • noun An evergreen European shrub that yields a medicinal oil.
  • noun The dried tips of this plant, with poisonous and anthelmintic properties, used as a drug.

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

  • noun procumbent or spreading juniper

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old English safine and from Old French savine, both from Latin (herba) Sabīna, Sabine (plant), savin, feminine of Sabīnus.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French savine, from Latin Sabina ("Sabine (herb)").

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Examples

  • She's what ye might call savin ', fer she's savin' her board, an 'when she left the Brimblecom's the last time she spent the summer with 'em, she put a little package in Mis'

    Randy and Her Friends Amy Brooks

  • 'Why, he's weshed 'em all aat in th' Green Fowd Lodge wi 'savin'

    Lancashire Idylls (1898) Marshall Mather

  • Comin 'to me as you did -- an' after bein 'druv off -- keepin' your council an 'savin' my girls from thet hold-up, wal, it's the biggest deal any man ever did for me ...

    The Man of the Forest 1919

  • She s'posed, o 'course, that it was the men who had tackled the storm in the hope o' savin 'some o' the cattle, an 'she ran out o' the door to give 'em an answerin 'hail so as they could git an idee as to the direction o' the house.

    The Boy With the U. S. Foresters Francis Rolt-Wheeler 1918

  • An 'when he was goin' away, he gave her a gold sovereign, an 'he says, ` Put it in th' savin's-bank for him, an 'keep it theer till he's a big lad an' wants it. '

    T. Tembarom 1913

  • Comin 'to me as you did -- an' after bein 'druv off -- keepin' your council an 'savin' my girls from thet hold-up, wal, it's the biggest deal any man ever did for me ....

    The Man of the Forest Zane Grey 1905

  • An 'yet, we won't be idle, an' even to-day, maybe, some way o 'savin' you can be found!

    The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann Volume II Gerhart Hauptmann 1904

  • "Tis th 'savin' o 'Emily an' makin 'she well -- an' makin 'she well!"

    Ungava Bob A Winter's Tale Dillon Wallace 1901

  • At th 'same time I jealoused' at he were keen o 'savin' 'Liza Roantree's soul as well, and I could ha' killed him many a time.

    Indian Tales Rudyard Kipling 1900

  • At th 'same time I jealoused' at he were keen o 'savin' 'Liza Roantree's soul as well, and I could ha' killed him many a time.

    Life's Handicap Rudyard Kipling 1900

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  • "There are words for trees that shelter these birds—

    low laurels, others that are called liquid-

    ambars, cedars, savins, and evergreen oaks—"

    from "Stranging" by David Baker, in Never-Ending Birds

    November 28, 2009