What does salvage mean?
Word: Salvage
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: Salvage means to save something from a fire, flood, wreck or other disaster so that it is not lost; also to rescue something useful from a bad situation.
Synonyms: save, rescue, recover
Word origin: From French salvage, from Medieval Latin salvagium, from Latin salvare, 'to save'.
How do you spell salvage?
Syllables: sal - vage
Tricky part: Do not drop the l after the first a. Without it you get savage, a different word that means fierce and wild.
Watch out for: salvidge, salvege, salvadge
Memory tip: Picture sacks of salt salvaged from a flooded warehouse; salvage starts with the first three letters of salt.
Salvage in a sentence
Example 1: Dad salvaged the old wooden window frames and turned them into a bookshelf.
Example 2: Our team salvaged a draw with a goal in the last minute.
Example 3: Workers salvaged bricks from the old mill to build a new community hall.
Fun Fact
Under the law of the sea, people who help salvage a ship in trouble can claim a reward from its owners, known as a salvage award.
Practise the CREST Way
Jumble Tumble
What is the meaning of the word that can be formed from the given letters?
gavelas
a) to arrange things in neat rows
b) to wash something in running water
c) to save something that might be lost
d) to grind something into a fine powder
Show answer
c) to save something that might be lost. The letters can be rearranged to salvage, which means to save something from loss.
Spell Spies
Choose the pair which has a spelling error:
a) knowledge : knowledgeable
b) manage : manageable
c) change : changeable
d) salvage : salvagable
Show answer
d) salvage : salvagable. Words ending in -ge keep their e before -able, so it is salvageable, like manageable.
Word Tally
How many words are misspelt in the given sentence?
After the storm, the shopkeeper managed to salvage a few bags of rice and some tins of biscuts from his flooded godown.
a) 3
b) 2
c) 0
d) 1
Show answer
d) 1. Only biscuits is wrong: it needs the i before the t.
Word Puzzle
Match the words with the correct options:
1. salvage 2. expand 3. scatter a. discard b. gather c. shrink
a) 1-a, 2-c, 3-b
b) 1-c, 2-a, 3-b
c) 1-b, 2-c, 3-a
d) 1-a, 2-b, 3-c
Show answer
a) 1-a, 2-c, 3-b. You salvage what you might otherwise discard, a balloon can expand or shrink, and people scatter or gather.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Divers who salvage a sunken ship ___.
a) paint it a bright new colour
b) bring up its cargo or the ship itself
c) sell tickets for people to visit it
d) sail it to a different port
Show answer
b) bring up its cargo or the ship itself
2. Salvage can also be a noun. In 'The salvage was sold at auction', salvage means ___.
a) the harbour where ships wait
b) the goods saved from a wreck
c) the money paid to the divers
d) the rope used to pull a boat
Show answer
b) the goods saved from a wreck
