sain
/seɪn/
sain verb: to make the sign of the cross on or over something or someone.
Verb
sain (third-person singular simple present sains, present participle saining, simple past and past participle sained)
- To make the sign of the cross on or over something or someone.
- Saining is the grand protection against them; a Shetlander always sains himself when passing by their hills.1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 261
- To make the sign of the cross.
- To bless, to keep from evil influence.
- Sain usǃ Sain us, oh Godǃ.
- Far from my speech stands he who sains and saves.1889, “Agamemnon”, in Edmund Doidge Anderson Morshead, transl., The House of Atreus, 2nd edition, page 57
Proper noun capitalized: Sain
Sain (plural Sains)
- A surname.
Forms of sain
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | sains |
| present participle | saining |
| past participle | sained |
| past | sained |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Sains |
Origin of sain
From Middle English sainen, seinen, senen, sinen, signen, from Old English sēnian, seġnian, from Proto-Germanic *segnōną (“to mark with a cross, bless”), from Latin signō, from signum. Cognate with Dutch zegenen (“to bless”), German segnen (“to bless”), Irish séan (“sign, omen”) and Scottish Gaelic seun (“a charm”).
Words formed from sain
Words that rhyme with sain
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- drain
- pane
- gain
- main
- sustain
- vein
- entertain
- skein
- Wayne
- abstain
- bane
- campaign
- champagne
- crane
- entrain
- fain
- insane
- maine
- pain
- plane
- stain
- wane
- Aquitaine
- ascertain
- chicane
- contain
- detain
- explain
- maintain
- mundane
- obtain
- refrain
- remain
- vane
- amain
- arcane
- Blaine
- complain
- deign
- detrain
- distrain
- kane
- ordain
- pertain
- profane
- public domain
- reign
- swain
Questions about sain
- What does sain mean?
- Sain means to make the sign of the cross on or over something or someone.
- What part of speech is sain?
- Sain can be a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce sain?
- Sain is pronounced /seɪn/.
- What is the past tense of sain?
- The past tense of sain is sained.
Words near sain in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sain (page history and authors); Sain (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-sain.wav.
Cite this entry: “sain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.