Definition of "sain"

sain

/seɪn/

verb
third-person singular simple present sains, present participle saining, simple past and past participle sained
1. (transitive, archaic) To make the sign of the cross on or over something or someone.
  Quotations
  Saining is the grand protection against them; a Shetlander always sains himself when passing by their hills.
  1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 261
2. (intransitive, obsolete except in Scots) To make the sign of the cross.
3. (transitive, archaic) To bless, to keep from evil influence.
  Quotations
  Far from my speech stands he who sains and saves.
  1889, “Agamemnon”, in Edmund Doidge Anderson Morshead, transl., The House of Atreus, 2nd edition, page 57
  The child was sained then. Fir candles were lighted and whirled round the bed in which mother and infant lay.
  1983, Robert Nye, The Facts of Life