sake

plural sakes

1. Cause, interest or account.

   For the sake of argument

   1 more example

   I hope you're right, for all our sakes!

2. Purpose or end; reason.

   for old times' sake

   1 more example

   It's not worth risking your life for the sake of getting there a few minutes earlier.

3. The benefit or regard of someone or something.

   2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 242a-b. But it will be for your sake that we'll undertake to refute this thesis, […]

   2 more examples

   Ne ãd except thoſe dayes ſhulde be ſhoꝛtened / ſhulde no fleſſe be faved: Butt foꝛ the choſens ſake thoſe dayes ſhalbe ſhoꝛtened.

   1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew xxiiij:[22], folio xxxiiij, verso

   When I gave a dinner there was generally a cover laid for him. I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

4. obsolete except in phrasesContention, strife; guilt, sin, accusation or charge.

   And unto Adam He said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 3:17

plural sakes

1. alternativecountableuncountableAlternative spelling of saké.