sable

noun

1. (countable)A 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. (countable)Any other marten, especially Martes americana (syn. Mustela americana).
3. (countable, uncountable)A pelt of fur of a sable or of one of another species of martens; a coat made from this fur.

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

   “Lovers dallied upon divans spread with sables.”

4. (countable)An artist's brush made from the fur of the sable, the kolinsky sable-hair brush.
5. (countable, uncountable)A black colour on a coat of arms.
6. (countable, uncountable)A dark brown colour, resembling the fur of some sables.
7. (countable, in-plural, uncountable)Black garments, especially worn in mourning.

   “I ſee its Sables wove by Deſtiny.”

   “[…]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.”

8. (countable, uncountable)The sablefish.

adj

1. Sable-coloured, black.

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

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

   “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.”

2. In 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.”

5. (archaic, literary)Dark-skinned; Black.

   “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.”

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

   “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."”

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

name

1. A surname.