1 [VN] to keep a particular quality, feature, etc.; to make sure that sth is kept:
He was anxious to preserve his reputation. * Efforts to preserve the peace have failed. * She managed to preserve her sense of humour under very trying circumstances.
2 [oftenpassive] to keep sth in its original state in good condition:
[VN] a perfectly preserved 14th-century house * (humorous) Is he really 60? He's remarkably well preserved. * [VN-ADJ] This vase has been preserved intact.
3 [VN] to prevent sth, especially food, from decaying by treating it in a particular way:
olives preserved in brine * Wax polish preserves wood and leather.
4 [VN] ~ sb/sth (from sth) to keep sb/sth alive, or safe from harm or danger:
The society was set up to preserve endangered species from extinction.
compareCONSERVE
Part of speech: noun
1 [sing.] ~ (of sb) an activity, a job, an interest, etc. that is thought to be suitable for one particular person or group of people:
Football is no longer the preserve of men. * in the days when nursing was a female preserve
2 [C,usually pl.,U] a type of jam made by boiling fruit with a large amount of sugar
3 [C,usually pl.,U] (especially BrE) a type of PICKLE made by cooking vegetables with salt or VINEGAR
4 [C] (AmE) = RESERVE(2)
5 [C] an area of private land or water where animals and fish are kept for people to hunt
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for preserve is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is preserve a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, preserve is tagged as verb.
Does preserve appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — preserve appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
