Definitions

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

  • noun Purpose; motive.
  • noun Advantage; good.
  • noun Personal benefit or interest; welfare.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A land-spring; a wet spot where the water oozes forth.
  • noun The magma or pulpy coagulum deposited from the waste liquors of wool-washing after addition of sulphuric acid. It is pressed cold to remove water; then, with hot pressing, it yields a dark-colored, sticky grease, known as Yorkshire grease, and a residual ‘seed-cake’ used as a fertilizer.
  • noun Strife; contention; dispute.
  • noun Fault; guilt.
  • noun Purpose; purpose of obtaining or achieving: as, to labor for the sake of subsistence.
  • noun Cause; account; reason; interest; regard to any person or thing: as, without sake: now always preceded by for, with a possessive: as, for my sake; for heaven's sake.
  • noun Same as saki.
  • noun A Japanese fermented liquor made from rice. It contains from 11 to 17 per cent. of alcohol, and is heated before being drunk.
  • noun The generic name in Japan for all kinds of spirituous liquors, whether made from grain or grapes, fermented or distilled.

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

  • noun Final cause; end; purpose of obtaining; cause; motive; reason; interest; concern; account; regard or respect; -- used chiefly in such phrases as, for the sake of, for his sake, for man's sake, for mercy's sake, and the like.
  • noun a traditional alcoholic drink of Japan. It is made from rice.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun countable and uncountable Rice wine, a Japanese alcoholic beverage made from rice.
  • noun Cause, interest or account.
  • noun Purpose or end; reason.
  • noun The benefit or regard of someone or something.
  • noun obsolete except in phrases Contention, strife; guilt, sin, accusation or charge.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the purpose of achieving or obtaining
  • noun Japanese alcoholic beverage made from fermented rice; usually served hot
  • noun a reason for wanting something done

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, lawsuit, guilt, from Old English sacu; see sāg- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Japanese  (さけ, sake), any alcoholic drink.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English sake ("sake, cause"), from Old English sacu ("cause, lawsuit, legal action, complaint, issue, dispute"), from Proto-Germanic *sakō (“affair, thing, charge, accusation, matter”), from Proto-Indo-European *sag- (“to investigate”). Akin to Old Frisian seke ("dispute, strife, thing, matter") (Dutch zaak "cause, thing"), Old High German sahha ("quarrel, dispute, thing") (German Sache "thing, legal cause"), Old Norse sök ("lawsuit"), sekja ("dispute") (Danish sag, Swedish sak), Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌺𐌾𐍉 (sakjo, "dispute, argument"), Old English sōcn ("inquiry, prosecution"), Old English sēcan ("to seek"). More at soke, soken, seek.

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Examples

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  • Benefit.

    October 29, 2009

  • "The magma or pulpy coagulum deposited from the waste liquors of wool-washing after addition of sulphuric acid. It is pressed cold to remove water; then, with hot pressing, it yields a dark-colored, sticky grease, known as Yorkshire grease, and a residual ‘seed-cake’ used as a fertilizer." --CD&C

    January 30, 2012