SABLE • DICCIONARIO INGLES.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

... hand was stretched nearer and nearer towards its victim, waving and quivering like some black snake, while the face of the operator assumed an expression of the most concentrated powerful purpose, which, combined with his sable color and the vehement imperative gestures which he aimed at Dr. Becker, really produced a quasi-diabolical effect. The result, however, was not immediate. Dr. Becker was apparently less susceptible this evening than on previous occasions; but Dr. Lewis renewed and repeated his ...

— Records of Later Life • Frances Anne Kemble

... cardinals to poor dominies of the gospel, somewhat out at the elbows.{3} The fine linen and the purple, the cope and the stole, would at least have the effect of giving that sort of pleasant relief to the widespread sable of our Assemblies which they possessed of yore, ere they for ever lost the gay uniform of the Lord High Commissioner, the gold lace of his dragoon officers, and the glitter of his pages in silver and scarlet. 'We are two of the humblest servants ...

— Leading Articles on Various Subjects • Hugh Miller

... torches and a cross elevated on a high pole before a coffin, pass through the streets chanting the service for the dead. The Brethren of Mercy may also be seen engaged in their office. The rapidity of their pace, the flare of their torches, the gleam of their eyes through their masks, and their sable garb, give them a kind of supernatural appearance. I return to bed and fall asleep amidst the shouts of people returning from the opera, singing as they go snatches of the music with which they had ...

— The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. IX (of X) - America - I • Various

... preservation, worked upon Bertha's ardent and susceptible imagination, prepossessing her in my favour. For my part, I had been struck to the heart by the very first glance from the dark eyes that sparkled like diamonds beneath their lashes of sable silk; I had been captivated and fettered on the instant, by the smile of enchanting sweetness that played round her graceful lips. For a while I struggled steadfastly against the passionate impulse; its indulgence I felt would be madness, and could result but in misery. What folly for the penniless ...

— Tales from Blackwood, Volume 7 • Various

... its enemies, the jaguar and the cougar. In South America concealing coloration plays no more part in the lives of the adult deer, the tamandua, the tapir, the peccary, the jaguar, and the puma than it plays in Africa in the lives of such animals as the zebra, the sable antelope, the wildebeeste, the lion, ...

— Through the Brazilian Wilderness • Theodore Roosevelt

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