save

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
save1

▶verb

• 1 keep safe or rescue from harm or danger.

  ■ prevent from dying.

  ■ (in Christian use) preserve (a soul) from damnation.

• 2 store up for future use.

  ■ preserve.

• 3 Computing keep (data) by moving a copy to a storage location.

• 4 (save it) N. Amer. informal be quiet.

• 5 avoid the need to use up or spend.

  ■ avoid, lessen, or guard against.

• 6 prevent an opponent from scoring (a goal or point) or from winning (the game).

  ■ Soccer prevent (a shot) from entering the goal.

  ■ Baseball (of a relief pitcher) preserve (a winning position) gained by another pitcher.

▶noun

• 1 chiefly Soccer an act of saving a shot on goal.

  ■ Baseball an instance of saving a winning position.

• 2 Computing an act of saving data.

– phrases
save one's breath not bother to say something pointless.
save the day (or situation) provide a solution to a problem.
save someone's skin (or neck or bacon) rescue someone from difficulty.
save the tide Nautical, archaic get in and out of port while the tide lasts.

– derivatives
savable (also saveable) adjective.

– origin ME: from OFr. sauver, from late L. salvare, from L. salvus ‘safe’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
save2

▶preposition & conjunction formal or literary except; other than.

– origin ME: from OFr. sauf, sauve, from L. salvo, salva (ablative sing. of salvus ‘safe’), used in phrs such as salvo jure, salva innocentia ‘with no violation of right or innocence’.