Conserve
noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Wilderness where human development is prohibited.
- 2 fruit preserved by cooking with sugar wordnet
- 3 A jam or thick syrup made from fruit.
"I shall […] study broths, plasters, and conserves, till from a fine lady I become a notable woman."
- 4 A medicinal confection made of freshly gathered vegetable substances mixed with finely powdered refined sugar. obsolete
- 5 A conservatory. obsolete
"water[…]alwayes placed in the Conserve"
- 1 To save for later use, sometimes by the use of a preservative. transitive
"to conserve fruits with sugar"
- 2 preserve with sugar wordnet
- 3 To protect an environment, heritage, etc. transitive
"Two entrants shared this award for their work on two quite different stations, but with the same purpose of bringing a redundant station building back into use for the benefit of the community, with the added result of conserving an historic building. Saltash Town Council bought Saltash station building after it had become very decrepit and 'an eyesore' - such that it was nearly pulled down to make way for housing."
- 4 use cautiously and frugally wordnet
- 5 To remain unchanged during a process intransitive
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- 6 keep in safety and protect from harm, decay, loss, or destruction wordnet
- 7 keep constant through physical or chemical reactions or evolutionary change wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"When bears sleep or lie down, their postures depend on whether they want to get rid of heat or conserve it."
Etymology
From Middle English conserven, from Old French conserver, from Latin conservare (“to keep, preserve”), from com- (intensive prefix) + servo (“keep watch, maintain”). See also observe.
Related phrases
More for "conserve"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.