Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A person officially recognized, especially by canonization, as being entitled to public veneration and capable of interceding for people on earth.
  • noun A person who has died and gone to heaven.
  • noun A member of any of various Christian groups, especially a Latter-Day Saint.
  • noun A person who is venerated for holiness in a non-Christian religious tradition.
  • noun An extremely virtuous person.
  • transitive verb To name, recognize, or venerate as a saint.
  • transitive verb To regard or venerate as extremely virtuous.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An old game: same as cent, 4.
  • Holy; sacred: only in attributive use, and now only before proper names, as Saint John, Saint Paul, Saint Augustine, or quasi-proper names, as Saint Saviour, Saint Sophia (Holy Wisdom), Saint Cross, Saint Sepulcher (in names of churches), where it is usually regarded as a noun appositive, a quasi-title. See II., 3.
  • noun One who has been consecrated or set a part to the service of God: applied in the Old Testament to the Israelites as a people (Ps. cxxxii. 9; compare Num. xvi. 3), and in the New Testament to all members of the Christian churches (2 Cor. i. 1).
  • noun One who is pure and upright in heart and life; hence, in Scriptural and Christian usage, one who has been regenerated and sanctified by the Spirit of God; one of the redeemed: applied to them both in their earthly and in their heavenly state; also used of persons of other religions: as, a Buddhist saint.
  • noun One who is eminent for consecration, holiness, and piety in life and character; specifically, one who is generally or officially recognized as an example of holiness of life, and to whose name it is customary to prefix Saint (abbreviated St. or S.) as a title.
  • noun An angel.
  • noun One of the blessed dead: distinguished from the angels, who are superhuman beings.
  • noun An image of a saint.
  • noun A North American shrub, Ascyrum Crux Andreæ.
  • noun Erysipelas.
  • noun A Bordeaux wine, especially red, of medium quality.
  • noun A red wine grown near Poitiers.
  • noun The ergot of rye (Claviceps purpurea). See ergot for figure and description.
  • noun A red wine produced in the neighborhood of the Rhone, not often exported.
  • noun Tinea.
  • noun Measles of the hog. See Trichina, trichinosis.
  • noun Insanity.
  • noun The garfish, Belone belone or B. vulgaris.
  • noun In later books, the European Hypericum quadrangulum.
  • noun Perhaps transferred from the last, the American genns Ascyrum, especially A. stans.
  • noun The snowberry, Symphoricarpos.
  • noun A white wine produced in the department of Gironde, in the neighborhood of St. Emilion.
  • To number or enroll among saints officially; canonize.
  • To salute as a saint.
  • To act piously or with a show of piety; play the saint: sometimes with an indefinite it.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To make a saint of; to enroll among the saints by an offical act, as of the pope; to canonize; to give the title or reputation of a saint to (some one).
  • transitive verb to act as a saint, or with a show of piety.
  • noun A person sanctified; a holy or godly person; one eminent for piety and virtue; any true Christian, as being redeemed and consecrated to God.
  • noun One of the blessed in heaven.
  • noun (Eccl.) One canonized by the church.
  • noun (Bot.) A low North American shrub (Ascyrum Crux-Andreæ, the petals of which have the form of a Saint Andrew's cross.
  • noun a T-shaped cross. See Illust. 6, under Cross.
  • noun the erysipelas; -- popularly so called because it was supposed to have been cured by the intercession of Saint Anthony.
  • noun (Bot.) the groundnut (Bunium flexuosum); -- so called because swine feed on it, and St. Anthony was once a swineherd.
  • noun (Bot.) the bulbous crowfoot, a favorite food of swine.
  • noun (Bot.) a kind of knapweed (Centaurea solstitialis) flowering on St. Barnabas's Day, June 11th.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a breed of large, handsome dogs celebrated for strength and sagacity, formerly bred chiefly at the Hospice of St. Bernard in Switzerland, but now common in Europe and America. There are two races, the smooth-haired and the rough-haired. See Illust. under Dog.
  • noun (Bot.) the plant love-in-a-mist. See under Love.
  • noun (Paleon.) the fossil joints of crinoid stems.
  • noun (Bot.) a heatherlike plant (Dabœcia polifolia), named from an Irish saint.
  • noun See under Distaff.
  • noun a luminous, flamelike appearance, sometimes seen in dark, tempestuous nights, at some prominent point on a ship, particularly at the masthead and the yardarms. It has also been observed on land, and is due to the discharge of electricity from elevated or pointed objects. A single flame is called a Helena, or a Corposant; a double, or twin, flame is called a Castor and Pollux, or a double Corposant. It takes its name from St. Elmo, the patron saint of sailors.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English seint, from Old French saint, from Late Latin sānctus, from Latin, holy, past participle of sancīre, to consecrate; see sak- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English saint, from Old French saint (Modern French saint), from Latin sanctus ("holy, consecrated, in Late Latin as a noun a saint"), past participle of sancire ("to render sacred, make holy"), akin to sacer ("holy, sacred").

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Examples

  • That name, with the addition of _saint_, is inserted in the Roman calendar; and the saint, by a rare felicity, is crowned with the praises of the historians and philosophers of an enlightened age.

    History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5 Edward Gibbon 1765

  • If you look at the stamp, our saint is accompanied by a nice dog.

    Global Voices in English » Bolivia: Honoring Dogs on the Feast of St. Roch 2009

  • An advertisement within paragraph (d) of this Class may be displayed only in the county with which the saint is associated.

    The First Of The Gang To Die. « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2009

  • Both hands holding on to her scarf, she sat in the passenger seat, and whenever they approached an intersection, she prayed to her name saint, Hedwig, whose miracles and peacemaking had saved many lives.

    Stones from the River Ursula Hegi 1994

  • Both hands holding on to her scarf, she sat in the passenger seat, and whenever they approached an intersection, she prayed to her name saint, Hedwig, whose miracles and peacemaking had saved many lives.

    Stones from the River Ursula Hegi 1994

  • Both hands holding on to her scarf, she sat in the passenger seat, and whenever they approached an intersection, she prayed to her name saint, Hedwig, whose miracles and peacemaking had saved many lives.

    Stones from the River Ursula Hegi 1994

  • Both hands holding on to her scarf, she sat in the passenger seat, and whenever they approached an intersection, she prayed to her name saint, Hedwig, whose miracles and peacemaking had saved many lives.

    Stones from the River Ursula Hegi 1994

  • Both hands holding on to her scarf, she sat in the passenger seat, and whenever they approached an intersection, she prayed to her name saint, Hedwig, whose miracles and peacemaking had saved many lives.

    Stones from the River Ursula Hegi 1994

  • I will begin with a religious song, a miracle-the Miracle of Saint Nicolas or The King's Nursemaid, which must have originated on the frontier of Switzerland, centuries ago-where the saint is the revered patron.

    Folk Songs of French Canada 1929

  • This monastery was built over the bones of what he called a saint, and people came there and were cured of many diseases.

    Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll, Volume I Including His Answers to the Clergy, His Oration at His Brother's Grave, Etc., Etc. Robert Green Ingersoll 1866

Comments

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  • I like the structure of the WordNet definition. The first step to sainthood is plainly dying.

    October 2, 2008

  • n. The ergot of rye (Claviceps purpurea).
    n. A red wine produced in the neighborhood of the Rhone, not often exported.
    n. Tinea.
    n. Measles of the hog. See Trichina, trichinosis.
    n. Insanity.
    n. The garfish, Belone belone or B. vulgaris.

    August 11, 2015