sable

plural sables · alternative sa. · alternative s.

1. countableA small carnivorous mammal of the Old World that resembles a weasel, Martes zibellina, from cold regions in Eurasia and the North Pacific islands, valued for its dark brown fur.
2. countableAny other marten, especially Martes americana (syn. Mustela americana).
3. countableuncountableA pelt of fur of a sable or of one of another species of martens; a coat made from this fur.

   Lovers dallied upon divans spread with sables.

   1928, Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography, London: The Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished as Orlando: A Biography (eBook no. 0200331h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, July 2015

   1 more example

   "Ye must avenge my sister's son's death; I will sables and martins bestow."

   1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 171

4. countableAn artist's brush made from the fur of the sable, the kolinsky sable-hair brush.
5. uncountablegovernmentA black colour on a coat of arms.
6. countableuncountableA dark brown colour, resembling the fur of some sables.
7. countablein pluraluncountablesablesBlack garments, especially worn in mourning.

   I ſee its Sables wove by Deſtiny.

   1745, [Edward Young], “Night the Ninth and Last. The Consolation. Containing, among Other Things, I. A Moral Survey of the Nocturnal Heavens. II. A Night-Address to the Deity. […]”, in The Complaint: Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, London: […] [Samuel Richardson] for A[ndrew] Millar […], and R[obert] Dodsley […], published 1750, →OCLC, page 295

   1 more example

   […]a delighted shout from the children swung him toward the door again. His sister, Mrs. Gerard, stood there in carriage gown and sables, radiant with surprise. ¶ "Phil! You! Exactly like you, Philip, to come strolling in from the antipodes—dear fellow!" recovering from the fraternal embrace and holding both lapels of his coat in her gloved hands.

   1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

8. countableuncountableThe sablefish.

comparative sabler · superlative sablest · alternative sa. · alternative s.

1. Sable-coloured, black.

   When I behold the violet past prime, And sable curls all silver'd o'er with white

   1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 12”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   Night, sable goddess! from her ebon throne, / In rayless majesty, now stretches forth / Her leaden sceptre o'er a slumbering world.

   1742, [Edward Young], “Night the First”, in The Complaint: Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley […], →OCLC

   They wound between the wagons to a tent removed from the rest of the traders'. It was crimson at the top and sable at the bottom, with thin triangles of colors stabbing into each other.

   2002, Christopher Paolini, chapter 3, in Eragon

2. governmentIn blazon, of the colour black.
3. Made of sable fur.
4. Dark, somber.

   She turned and waved a hand to him, she cried a word, but he didn't hear it, it was a lost word. A sable wraith she was in the parkland, fading away into the dolorous crypt of winter.

   1922, Michael Arlen, “3/2/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days

5. archaicliteraryDark-skinned; Black.

   Ethnologists are in the wrong / About our sable brothers[.]

   1880 June 19, Henry Kendall, “My Piccaninny”, in The Australian Town and Country Journal, page 28, column 4

   3 more examples

   Some of the sable females, who formerly stood aloof, now began to relax and appear less coy; but my heart was still fixed on London, where I hoped to be ere long.

   1789, Olaudah Equiano, chapter 7, in The Interesting Narrative, volume I

   Of this one of the drovers writes thus: - "Very soon there will be homesteads and stations dotted all over the Territory within easy distances of one another, driving our sable brethren from their ancient hunting grounds."

   1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 281

   For twelve long months I had to pace, / Humping my swag with a cadging face, / Sleeping in the bush, like the sable race.

   1905, Banjo Paterson, Old Bush Songs, page 40

   Synonyms: black, dusky, inky, sooty, swarthy

1. A surname.