sable

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: sa=ble

CIDE DICTIONARY

sable, n. [OF. sable, F. zibeline sable (in sense 4), LL. sabellum; cf. D. sabel, Dan. sabel, zobel, Sw. sabel, sobel, G. zobel; all fr. Russ. sóbole.].

•  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.  [1913 Webster]

  " The sable resembles the marten, but has a longer head and ears. Its fur consists of a soft under wool, with a dense coat of hair, overtopped by another still longer. It varies greatly in color and quality according to the locality and the season of the year. The darkest and most valuable furs are taken in autumn and winter in the colder parts of Siberia, Russia, and British North America."  [1913 Webster]

  " The American sable, or marten, was formerly considered a distinct species (Mustela Americana), but it differs very little from the Asiatic sable, and is now considered only a geographical variety."  [1913 Webster]
•  The fur of the sable.  [1913 Webster]
•  A mourning garment; a funeral robe; -- generally in the plural.  Young.  [1913 Webster]
•  The tincture black; -- represented by vertical and horizontal lines crossing each other.  [1913 Webster]

sable, a. 

 Of the color of the sable's fur; dark; black; -- used chiefly in poetry.  [1913 Webster]
"Night, sable goddess! from her ebon throne,
In rayless majesty, now stretches forth
Her leaden scepter o'er a slumbering world."  [1913 Webster]

Sable antelope (Zoöl.), a large South African antelope (Hippotragus niger). Both sexes have long, sharp horns. The adult male is black; the female is dark chestnut above, white beneath. -- Sable iron, a superior quality of Russia iron; -- so called because originally stamped with the figure of a sable. -- Sable mouse (Zoöl.), the lemming.

sable, v. t. 

 To render sable or dark; to drape darkly or in black.  [1913 Webster]
"Sabled all in black the shady sky."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

sable, n.
1 a a small brown-furred flesh-eating mammal, Martes zibellina, of N. Europe and parts of N. Asia, related to the marten. b its skin or fur.
2 a fine paintbrush made of sable fur.

sable, n. & adj.
--n.
1 esp. poet. black.
2 (in pl.) mourning garments.
3 (in full sable antelope) a large stout-horned African antelope, Hippotragus niger, the males of which are mostly black in old age.
--adj.
1 (usu. placed after noun) Heraldry black.
2 esp. poet. dark, gloomy.

Derivative

sabled adj. sably adv.

Etymology

ME f. OF (in Heraldry): gen. taken to be identical with SABLE(1), although sable fur is dark brown

THESAURUS

sable

achievement, alerion, animal charge, annulet, argent, armorial bearings, armory, arms, atramentous, azure, bandeau, bar, bar sinister, baton, bearings, bend, bend sinister, billet, black, black as coal, black as ebony, black as ink, black as midnight, black as night, black race, blackness, blazon, blazonry, bordure, broad arrow, cadency mark, canton, chaplet, charge, chevron, chief, coal-black, coaly, coat of arms, cockatrice, coronet, crescent, crest, cross, cross moline, crown, dark, dark as night, dark as pitch, darkness, deep black, device, difference, differencing, dusky, eagle, ebon, ebony, ermine, ermines, erminites, erminois, escutcheon, falcon, fess, fess point, field, file, flanch, fleur-de-lis, fret, fur, fusil, garland, gloomy, griffin, gules, gyron, hatchment, helmet, heraldic device, honor point, impalement, impaling, inescutcheon, ink-black, inkiness, inky, jet, jetty, label, lion, lozenge, mantling, marshaling, martlet, mascle, melanism, metal, midnight, motto, mullet, murky, night-black, night-dark, nigrescence, nigritude, nigrous, nombril point, octofoil, or, ordinary, orle, pale, paly, pean, pheon, pitch-black, pitch-dark, pitchy, purpure, quarter, quartering, raven, raven-black, rose, saltire, scutcheon, shield, sloe, sloe-black, sloe-colored, somber, spread eagle, subordinary, tar-black, tarry, tenne, tincture, torse, tressure, unicorn, vair, vert, wreath, yale

ROGET THESAURUS

sable

Blackness

VB be black, render black, blacken, infuscate, denigrate, blot, blotch, smutch, smirch, darken, black, sable, swarthy, somber, dark, inky, ebony, ebon, atramentous, jetty, coal-black, jet-black, fuliginous, pitchy, sooty, swart, dusky, dingy, murky, Ethiopic, low-toned, low in tone, of the deepest dye, black as jet, black as my hat, black as a shoe, black as a tinker's pot, black as November, black as thunder, black as midnight, nocturnal, nigrescent, gray, obscure.