preserve
UK/pɹəˈzɜːv//pɹəˈzɝv/
preserve noun: a sweet spread made of any of a variety of fruits.
Noun
preserve (countable and uncountable, plural preserves)
- A sweet spread made of any of a variety of fruits.
- A reservation, a nature preserve.
- 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
- An exclusive area of activity.
- Kids regard their tree houses as their own preserve.
- 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, →ISBN, page 86
Verb
preserve (third-person singular simple present preserves, present participle preserving, simple past and past participle preserved)
- To protect; to keep from harm or injury.
- Let's pray that we'd be preserved from danger.
- Every people has the right to preserve its identity and culture.
- 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.
- to preserve peaches or grapes
- To maintain throughout; to keep intact.
- to preserve appearances; to preserve silence
- I preserved a composed manner throughout the interrogation.
preserve meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
preserve in Hindi
- to preserve, save
- सहेजना sahejnā
- preserve
- मुरब्बा murabbā
preserve in Tamil
- பாதுகாத்தல், உணவை பதப்படுத்துதல், பேணிக்காத்தல்
preserve in Marathi
- to preserve
- राखणे rākhṇe
preserve in Urdu
- preserve
- مربا murabbā
More languagesFewer languages
- preserve in Bengali
- মোরব্বা mōrobba
- preserve in Telugu
- భద్రపరచడానికి, భద్రపరచుకోడానికి
- preserve in Malayalam
- കാത്തുസൂക്ഷിക്കുക, സംരക്ഷിക്കുക, നിലനിർത്തുക, പുലർത്തുക
- preserve in Kannada
- ಮುರಬ್ಬ, ಜ್ಯಾಮ್, ಮೀಸಲು ಕ್ಷೇತ್ರ, ಕಾಪಾಡು
- preserve in Punjabi
- ਰੱਖ rakkha
- preserve in Sanskrit
- पाति pāti, धरति dharati
- preserve in Arabic
- مُرَبًّى murabban, حَافَظَ ḥāfaẓa
- preserve in Indonesian
- cagar alam
- preserve in Vietnamese
- mứt, bảo tồn
Examples of preserve in a sentence
- 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...
- Well, there is sixpence to preserve thee.c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares...
Synonyms of preserve
Forms of preserve
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | preserves |
| alternative form | præserve |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | preserves |
| present participle | preserving |
| past participle | preserved |
| past | preserved |
Origin of preserve
From Middle English preserven, from Old French preserver, from Medieval Latin prēservāre (“keep, preserve”), from Late Latin praeservāre (“guard beforehand”), from prae (“before”, adverb) + servāre (“maintain, keep”). Displaced native Old English nerian.
Words formed from preserve
Phrases with preserve
Words that rhyme with preserve
9 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about preserve
- What does preserve mean?
- Preserve means a sweet spread made of any of a variety of fruits.
- What is preserve in Hindi?
- Preserve in Hindi is सहेजना (sahejnā), मुरब्बा (murabbā). See Preserve meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use preserve in a sentence?
- Better men than you, men who could believe and obey, twisted the entrails of iron and preserved the legend of fire.
- What part of speech is preserve?
- Preserve can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce preserve?
- Preserve is pronounced /pɹəˈzɜːv/ (UK).
- What is the plural of preserve?
- The plural of preserve is preserves.
Words near preserve in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: preserve (page history and authors); मुरब्बा (Hindi) (page history and authors); preserve (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); राखणे (Marathi) (page history and authors); مربا (Urdu) (page history and authors); মোরব্বা (Bengali) (page history and authors); preserve (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); preserve (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); preserve (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਰੱਖ (Punjabi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-preserve.ogg.
Cite this entry: “preserve.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/preserve. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.