Word.ws English Dictionary

save someone's bacon

save someone's bacon verb: synonym of save someone's life (in all senses).

Verb

save someone's bacon (third-person singular simple present saves someone's bacon, present participle saving someone's bacon, simple past and past participle saved someone's bacon)

  1. Synonym of save someone's life (in all senses).
    • [A]n anxious eye had been kept on the pinnace and the vessel she was chasing. "She's up to her," cried Desmond, who was looking through his glass; "she struck without a blow, and there go our fellows tumbling on board. Little doubt, however, about her being a slaver, though, as they must have seen...1876, W.H.G. Kingston, The Three Commanders
    • [T]he tide being fortunately in our favour, we reached the Saint Vincent in good time, going up the accommodation ladder on the port side, which, as you know, is devoted to the use of the lower deck portion of the crew, just as Eight Bells struck. "Ha, my lads," cried the Jaunty, who stood by the...1896, J.C. Hutcheson, Young Tom Bowling

Synonyms of save someone's bacon

Forms of save someone's bacon

third-person singular presentsaves someone's bacon
present participlesaving someone's bacon
past participlesaved someone's bacon
pastsaved someone's bacon

Origin of save someone's bacon

From an archaic sense of bacon, as a slang term referring to the human body.

Questions about save someone's bacon

What does save someone's bacon mean?
Save someone's bacon means synonym of save someone's life (in all senses).
What part of speech is save someone's bacon?
Save someone's bacon is a verb.
What is the past tense of save someone's bacon?
The past tense of save someone's bacon is saved someone's bacon.

Words near save someone's bacon in the dictionary

  1. save points
  2. save shot
  3. save shots
  4. save slot
  5. save slots
  6. save someone's bacon
  7. save someone's face
  8. save someone's life
  9. save someone's skin
  10. save something for a rainy day
  11. save state

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: save someone's bacon (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: En-au-save someone's bacon.ogg.

Cite this entry: “save someone's bacon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/save_someone%27s_bacon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.