a. Prefixed to the name of a canonized person (see B. 2), also to the names of the archangels: now felt to be the noun used appositively. Commonly abbreviated S. or St. (see below). [In Old English sanctus and sancte (originally the Latin vocative) were used for the masculine and sancta for the feminine.] The possessive of names preceded by ‘Saint’ is often used elliptically in names of churches, as St. Paul's, St. Peter's. Hence various names of towns, villages, etc., as St. Albans, St. Andrews, St. Bees; also the anglicized forms of some foreign place-names, as †St. Omer's (= French St.-Omer).

b. Abbreviations: S. and St., plural. SS. and Sts.Since the 18th cent. ‘St.’ is the form usually employed; but since about 1830 ‘S.’ has been favoured by ecclesiologists. In place-names, and in family names derived from these, only ‘St.’ is used.

†a. of heathen deities, etc. Obsolete.

b. allusively or ironically. Obsolete in gen. use. St. Lubbock's day: a jocular name for any of the bank holidays instituted by Sir John Lubbock's Act, 1871: see bank holiday n. and adj. See also Saint Monday n., Saint Sunday n. at Compounds 1e.

a. Ecclesiastical. One of those persons who are formally recognized by the Church as having by their exceptional holiness of life attained an exalted station in heaven, and as being entitled in an eminent degree to the veneration of the faithful; a canonized person. In Pre-Reformation use, the term implies that the persons so designated may be lawfully addressed in prayer for their intercession with God, and that miracles have been wrought through their aid after death. Also, a monk or anchorite, esp. in (is)land of saints, Ireland. †to seek, visit a saint: to pay one's devotions at his shrine. (Cf. hallow n.¹ 2.)

b. A representation or image of a saint.

c. transferred. Applied e.g. to persons who are the objects of posthumous reverence in non-Christian religions. †Also rarely to heathen deities, etc.

a. In biblical use, one of God's chosen people; in the New Testament, one of the elect under the New Covenant; a member of the Christian church; a Christian. Hence used by some religious bodies as their own designation, e.g. by some puritanical sects in the 16–17th centuries, the Mormons (see latter day n. and adj.), and the Plymouth Brethren.

b. In biblical use applied to angels.

a. A person of extraordinary holiness of life. Sometimes ironically, A person making an outward profession of piety. Also in colloquial use, an extremely good or long-suffering person.

b. Proverb.

a. A member of a religious association at Cambridge (see quots.). Now Historical.

b. One of the party which promoted the agitation in England against slavery. Now Historical.

St. Agatha's letters n. letters written on her day (February 5) as a charm against fire (see quot. 1563).

St. Augustine grass n. a coarse grass, Stenotaphrum secundatum, native to the south-eastern U.S. and central America and named after a town in Florida.

St. Bees Sandstone n. a pebbly sandstone occurring in thick beds in northwest England, formerly regarded as Upper Permian but now as Lower Triassic.

St. Bernard n. (also St. Bernard dog) in full Great St. Bernard dog, a dog of a breed kept by the monks of the Hospice of the Great St. Bernard (a dangerous pass in the alps between Switzerland and Italy) for the rescue of travellers in distress.

St. Bernard lily n. (also St. Bernard's lily) a perennial herb, Anthericum liliago, belonging to the family Liliaceæ and bearing racemes of white flowers.

St. Brigid anemone n. (also St. Brigid's anemone) a plant belonging to a garden race of Anemone coronaria, bearing single or double red or blue flowers.

St. Dabeoc's heath n. an Irish heath, Dabœcia cantabrica or one of its varieties, belonging to the family Ericaceæ and bearing white, pink, or purple flowers.

St. Domingo cuckoo n. etc., species of cuckoo, etc., found in San Domingo.

St. Domingo fever n. yellow fever.

St. George's mushroom n. a creamy-white, flattened mushroom, Tricholoma gambosum.

St. Germain pear n. a fine dessert pear.

St. Gobain glass n. a fine kind of plate glass manufactured at St. Gobain in France.

St. Helena tea n. (see quots.).

St. Johnston's riband n. Scottish a halter or hangman's rope. (St. Johnston = Perth).

St. Johnston's tippet n. = St. Johnston's riband n.

St. Kilda cold n. (see quot.).

St. Kilda mouse n. (also St. Kilda field mouse, St. Kilda house mouse) a variety of the long-tailed field mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus hirtensis, or the house mouse, Mus musculus muralis.

St. Kilda wren n. a local variety of the wren, Troglodytes troglodytes hirtensis, with paler plumage.

St. Leger n. the name of a horse race for three-year-olds run at Doncaster: instituted by Colonel St. Leger in 1776.

St. Louis encephalitis n. [ < St. Louis, city of Missouri, U.S.] a severe viral encephalitis transmitted by mosquitos.

St. Louis group n. a section of the mountain limestone of North America, well developed in states bordering on the upper Mississippi.

St. Lucia bark n. (also St. Lucie bark) the bark of the West Indian shrub Exostemma floribundum, used in tanning.

St. Michael's n. the name of one of the Azores, which produced a fine quality of orange.

† St. Omer's worsted n. (corruptly St. Thomas worsted) Obsolete a kind of worsted manufactured at St. Omer's.

St. Patrick's cabbage n. (see cabbage n.¹ 3).

St. Cloud n. /sɛ̃klu/ used attributively to designate porcelain or faïence made at St. Cloud, Seine-et-Oise, in the late-seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

St. Emilion n. /sɛ̃temiljɔ̃/ the name applied to various wines produced in the region of St. Emilion, Gironde, in south-west France.

St. Galmier n. /ɡalmje/ an effervescent natural mineral water from St. Galmier, Loire, in central France.

St. Honoré n. /ɔnɔre/ (see quot. 1964); usually attributive, as gâteau St. Honoré.

St. Paulin n. /polɛ̃/ a kind of cheese (see quots.).

St. Porchaire n. /pɔrʃɛr/ used attributively to designate a kind of earthenware made at Saint-Porchaire, Deux-Sèvres, France, in the sixteenth century.

St. Raphael n. /rafajɛl/ (also St. Raphael wine) an aperitif wine from St. Raphael, Var, in France.

Saint Monday n. used with reference to the practice among workmen of being idle on Monday, as a consequence of drunkenness on the Sunday; chiefly in phrase to keep Saint Monday.

† St. Paul's tide n. Obsolete the season about the festival of the Conversion of St. Paul (January 25).

Saint Sunday n. [translating post-classical Latin Sanctus Dominicus St. Dominic, due to confusion with post-classical Latin dies dominica Sunday (see Dominical adj.)] local St. Dominic.St. Dominic's Abbey, Cork, is called St. Sunday's Abbey in an inquisition about the end of Elizabeth's reign ( Notes & Queries 5th Ser. IX. 254), and the Dominican friary in Drogheda was situated near Sunday's Gate (D'Alton Hist. Drogheda, 1844, I. 120).

saint's day n. (a) a day set apart by the Church for observing the memory of a saint; (b) = name day n. 1.

† saint's head stone n. Obsolete a name for a kind of limestone.

a. transitive. To call (a person) a saint, give the name of ‘saint’ to; to reckon among the saints; spec. to enroll among the number of saints formally recognized by the Church; to canonize.

†b. figurative. (Also absol.) Obsolete.

a. To ascribe holy virtues or a sacred character to. Obsolete.

b. To name (something) after a saint. Obsolete. rare.