Sable
['seɪb(ə)l] or ['sebl]
Definition
(noun.) marten of northern Asian forests having luxuriant dark brown fur.
(noun.) a scarf (or trimming) made of sable.
(noun.) an artist's brush made of sable hairs.
(noun.) the expensive dark brown fur of the marten.
(adj.) of a dark somewhat brownish black .
Checked by Gwen--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A carnivorous animal of the Weasel family (Mustela zibellina) native of the northern latitudes of Europe, Asia, and America, -- noted for its fine, soft, and valuable fur.
(n.) The fur of the sable.
(n.) A mourning garment; a funeral robe; -- generally in the plural.
(n.) The tincture black; -- represented by vertical and horizontal lines crossing each other.
(a.) Of the color of the sable's fur; dark; black; -- used chiefly in poetry.
(v. t.) To render sable or dark; to drape darkly or in black.
Edited by Claudette
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Zibelline marten (Mustela zibellina).[2]. Pine marten, American sable (Mustela abietum).
a. Dark, dusky.
Edited by Elise
Definition
n. a Siberian species of Marten with lustrous dark-brown or blackish fur: its fur: a fine paint-brush made of sable: the colour black: (pl.) black clothes mourning clothes.—adj. of the colour of the sable's fur: blackish dark-brown: made of the fur of the sable.—v.t. to sadden.—adjs. Sā′ble-stoled; Sā′ble-vest′ed.
Checker: Witt
Examples
- On each side stood a sable bush-holly or yew. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- The masses of furze and heath to the right and left were dark as ever; a mere half-moon was powerless to silver such sable features as theirs. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- Markest thou the smouldering and suffocating vapour which already eddies in sable folds through the chamber? Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- As to his blood, I suppose the family quarterings are three cuttle-fish sable, and a commentator rampant. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Down the sable flood we glided, I thought of the Styx, and of Charon rowing some solitary soul to the Land of Shades. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Scream not, grey rider of the sable cloud, Thy banquet is prepared! Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- Another sable warder (a carpenter, who had once eaten two geese for a wager) opened the door, and showed me into the best parlor. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- I stood about three yards from a tall, sable-robed, snowy-veiled woman. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- As Miss Ophelia was in the kitchen in the latter part of the afternoon, some of the sable children called out, La, sakes! Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- The evening was pitch dark: star and moon were quenched in gray rain-clouds--gray they would have been by day; by night they looked sable. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- On the silvery space slept two sable shadows, thrown sharply defined from two human figures. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- The gigantic Front-de-Boeuf, armed in sable armour, was the first who took the field. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- Smaller developments of lights are worked out by careful manipulation of the etching fluid with small sable brushes. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- Grace Stepney rose up before her in sable wrath. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- One day Emmy, with George in her hand and clad in deep sables, went to visit the deserted mansion which she had not entered since she was a girl. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- Jewels--historic pearls: the Sobieski emeralds--sables,--but she cares nothing for all these! Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
- Meanwhile, Mr. Waldengarver, in a frightful perspiration, was trying to get himself out of his princely sables. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- Her little boy sat by her side in pompous new sables. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
Typed by Joan