SABLE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Sable

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/sˈeɪbəl/ Listen

noun

Sable n.

(Zool.) 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. Note: 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. Note: 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.

The fur of the sable.

A mourning garment; a funeral robe; generally in the plural. "Sables wove by destiny."

(Her.) The tincture black; represented by vertical and horizontal lines crossing each other.

adjective

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

Sable antelope (Zool.), 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 (Zool.), the lemming.

verb

Sable v. t. (past & past part. sabled; pres. part. sabling) To render sable or dark; to drape darkly or in black. "Sabled all in black the shady sky."

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Etymology of 'Sable'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Sable" Quotes from Famous Books

... the hand, Gabriel Druse ordered the cortege forward, and silently the procession with its yellow banners and its sable, drooping plumes ...

— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... cypresses in her burning summer twilights, touching with soft increase of silver light the rosy marbles of her balconies,—along the ridge of that encompassing rock, other circles are increasing now, white and pale; walled towers of cruel strength, sable-spotted with cannon-courses. I tell you, I have seen, when the thunderclouds came down on those Italian hills, and all their crags were dipped in the dark, terrible purple, as if the winepress of the wrath of God had stained their mountain-raiment—I have seen the hail fall in Italy till the forest ...

— A Joy For Ever - (And Its Price in the Market) • John Ruskin

... second Fenella in the sprightliness of her nimble exhibitions. Day Francis, the conjuror, was his admiration. He was delighted with Rannie, the old ventriloquist, and the first in America; and Potter, the late sable and celebrated professor of legerdemain, in slight-of-hand, he thought actually excelled Doctor ...

— Ups and Downs in the Life of a Distressed Gentleman • William L. Stone

... high blazing to the sky, Let numerous fires the absent sun supply, The flaming piles with plenteous fuel raise, Till the bright morn her purple beam displays; Lest, in the silence and the shades of night, Greece on her sable ships attempt her flight. Not unmolested let the wretches gain Their lofty decks, or safely cleave the main: Some hostile wound let every dart bestow, Some lasting token of the Phrygian foe: Wounds, that long hence may ask their ...

— MacMillan's Reading Books - Book V • Anonymous

... of butter, Fish and fowl of all descriptions, Beer I bought, home-brewed and sparkling, Wheat from all the distant nations, All the dainties of the Northland; But this all was unavailing, Gave my wife no satisfaction, Often came she to my chamber, Tore my sable locks in frenzy, With a visage fierce and frightful, With her eyeballs flashing anger, Scolding on and scolding ever, Ever speaking words of evil, Using epithets the vilest, Thought me but a block for chopping. Then I sought for other measures, Used on her my last ...

— Through Finland in Carts • Ethel Brilliana Alec-Tweedie

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