to save someone's ass
- phrasal verb
- /seɪv ˈsʌmˌwʌnz æs/
- Offensive
:
salvarle el culo a alguien (vulgar)
- You saved my ass.
Examples
-
I think I gotta save your ass one more time.
-
You really saved my ass.
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- I was trying to save your ass.
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Then again, not many people have saved my ass.
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We're here to save your ass.
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Mills is trying to save his ass by getting these reports ready for his presentation next month.
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You might need me to save your ass in a pinch.
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I've done everything I can to try to save your ass.
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He saved my ass.
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I wasn't sure we would make it out, but he really saved my ass at the last moment.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Rescue someone or something from danger
633
1.0
Save someone or something from danger
14
3.4
Arrive to help someone who is in trouble
1
8.9
Save someone from a difficult situation at the last moment
Antonyms
How Rescued
Surface Forms
Morphology
The verb 'save' clearly signals rescuing, so a learner who knows 'save' and 'someone' could infer a general rescuing meaning; however the noun 'ass' is a vulgar/body-part term whose use here is idiomatic/metaphorical ('butt'/'body' = person/position) and functions as a colloquial intensifier rather than literally indicating what is rescued. Because the overall sense is a predictable extension of 'save' but relies on slangy metaphor and register knowledge, it is not fully compositional for a B1 learner and should be classed as semi-transparent.
Etymology
Save someone's ass comes from a strong image: imagine someone pulling another person's ass, their back side, out of danger at the last moment. That's why it now means 'to rescue someone from a difficult or dangerous situation'.