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Starch

//stɑɹt͡ʃ// adj, noun, verb

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Stiff; precise; rigid. not-comparable

    "misrepresenting Sobriety as a Starch and Formal, and Vertue as a Laborious and Slavish thing"

Noun
  1. 1
    A widely diffused vegetable substance, found in seeds, bulbs and tubers, as extracted (e.g. from potatoes, corn, rice, etc.) in the form of a white, glistening, granular or powdery substance, without taste or smell, and giving a very peculiar creaking sound when rubbed between the fingers. It is used as a food, in the production of commercial grape sugar, for stiffening linen in laundries, in making paste, etc. uncountable

    "Meronym: saccharide"

  2. 2
    a commercial preparation of starch that is used to stiffen textile fabrics in laundering wordnet
  3. 3
    Carbohydrates, as with grain and potato based foods. countable
  4. 4
    a complex carbohydrate found chiefly in seeds, fruits, tubers, roots and stem pith of plants, notably in corn, potatoes, wheat, and rice; an important foodstuff and used otherwise especially in adhesives and as fillers and stiffeners for paper and textiles wordnet
  5. 5
    A stiff, formal manner; formality. uncountable

    "this Professor is to give the society their stiffening, and infuse into their manners that beautiful political starch, which may qualify them for Levées, Conferences, Visits"

Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    Fortitude. uncountable

    "The thought of the gun in his back put some starch in him. He needed the handrail, and he limped step by step, but he ascended at his full height."

  2. 7
    Any of various starch-like substances used as a laundry stiffener. countable

    "You're the starch in my collar / You're the lace in my shoe / You will always be my necessity / I'd be lost without you"

Verb
  1. 1
    To apply or treat with laundry starch, in order to create a hard, smooth surface. transitive

    "She starched her blouses."

  2. 2
    stiffen with starch wordnet

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English starche, sterche, from Old English *stierċe (“stiffness, rigidity, strength”), from Proto-West Germanic *starkī (“stiffness, rigidity, fortitude, strength”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sterg- (“stiff, rigid”). Cognate with dialectal Dutch sterk (“strong”), Middle Low German sterke (“strength”), German Stärke (“strength", also "starch”), Swedish stärkelse (“starch”), Icelandic sterkja (“starch”). Related to English stark (“stiff, strong, vigorous, powerful”).

Etymology 2

From Middle English starche, sterche, from Old English *stierċe (“stiffness, rigidity, strength”), from Proto-West Germanic *starkī (“stiffness, rigidity, fortitude, strength”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sterg- (“stiff, rigid”). Cognate with dialectal Dutch sterk (“strong”), Middle Low German sterke (“strength”), German Stärke (“strength", also "starch”), Swedish stärkelse (“starch”), Icelandic sterkja (“starch”). Related to English stark (“stiff, strong, vigorous, powerful”).

Etymology 3

From Middle English starche, sterche, from Old English *stierċe (“stiffness, rigidity, strength”), from Proto-West Germanic *starkī (“stiffness, rigidity, fortitude, strength”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sterg- (“stiff, rigid”). Cognate with dialectal Dutch sterk (“strong”), Middle Low German sterke (“strength”), German Stärke (“strength", also "starch”), Swedish stärkelse (“starch”), Icelandic sterkja (“starch”). Related to English stark (“stiff, strong, vigorous, powerful”).

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