SANTA

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

• SANTA (noun)
  The noun SANTA has 1 sense:

1. the legendary patron saint of children; an imaginary being who is thought to bring presents to children at Christmas

  Familiarity information: SANTA used as a noun is very rare.

• SANTA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The legendary patron saint of children; an imaginary being who is thought to bring presents to children at Christmas

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Father Christmas; Kriss Kringle; Saint Nicholas; Saint Nick; Santa; Santa Claus; St. Nick

Instance hypernyms:

imaginary being; imaginary creature (a creature of the imagination; a person that exists only in legends or myths or fiction)

patron saint (a saint who is considered to be a defender of some group or nation)

 Context examples 

"Is it fairies?" asked Amy. "Santa Claus," said Beth. "Mother did it." And Meg smiled her sweetest, in spite of her gray beard and white eyebrows.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The days came and went, streaming their unbroken sunshine over the Santa Clara Valley.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Think of Jupiter in Capricorn as Santa Claus, who gives you gifts and luck simply to make you happy, for he asks nothing in return.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

The scientists discovered that kelp also uses another form of dissolved nitrogen, urea, found in abundance in coastal upwelling zones such as the Santa Barbara Channel.

(Giant kelp switches diet when key nutrient becomes scarce, National Science Foundation)

A new collaboration between two UC Santa Barbara labs explored the underlying molecular mechanism of a remarkable process called anastasis, a Greek word meaning "rising to life."

(Cells Back from Brink of Death, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Extracted from the plant called yerba santa (holy herb), herbal polysaccharide saliva substitute contains plant mucins, which is nearly identical to that of human mucous membranes.

(Herbal Polysaccharide Saliva Substitute, NCI Thesaurus)

This he had never experienced at Judge Miller’s down in the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

The study proves a new and transformative technique for exploring the nature of galaxy halos, said J. Xavier Prochaska, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California Santa Cruz.

(Enigmatic radio burst illuminates a galaxy’s tranquil ​halo, ESO)

The Bahia municipalities of Santa Cruz Cabrália and Belmonte head the list with the top deforesters, with 3,058 hectares and 2,11 hectares respectively.

(Brazilian Atlantic Forest deforestation up nearly 60% in a year, Agência Brasil)

Peters and his co-authors, UC Santa Barbara marine ecologists Dan Reed and Deron Burkepile, saw the local community of sea-bottom invertebrates as a likely additional nitrogen source.

(In search of an undersea kelp forest's missing nitrogen, National Science Foundation)