Definition of "preserve"

preserve

/pɹəˈzɜːv/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural preserves
1. A sweet spread made of any of a variety of fruits.
2. A reservation, a nature preserve.
  Quotations
  Suppose Shakespeare had been knocked on the head some dark night in Sir Thomas Lucy's preserves, the world would have wagged on better or worse, the pitcher gone to the well, the scythe to the corn, and the student to his book; and no one been any the wiser of the loss.
  1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque
3. An activity with restricted access.
  Quotations
  No one can argue with that—neither the Army Commander nor Zhilinsky nor even the Grand Duke. That is the Emperor’s preserve. The Emperor says France must be saved. We can only do his bidding.
  1989, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, translated by H. T. Willetts, August 1914, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 86
  The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them, which is then licensed to related businesses in high-tax countries, is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies.
  2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68
verb
third-person singular simple present preserves, present participle preserving, simple past and past participle preserved
1. To protect; to keep from harm or injury.
  Quotations
  When Pistol lies, do this, and fig me like / The bragging Spaniard.
  1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene i]
2. To save from decay by the use of some preservative substance, such as sugar or salt; to season and prepare (fruits, meat, etc.) for storage.
3. To maintain throughout; to keep intact.
  Quotations
  Better men than you, men who could believe and obey, twisted the entrails of iron and preserved the legend of fire.
  1908, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare, Bristol: J[ames] W[illiams] Arrowsmith, […]; London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Company, page 266

Definition of "preserve"

preserve

noun

Quotations

Quotations

verb

Quotations

Quotations