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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Reserve

Re-sērve', v. t.

verbtransitive

[imp. & p. p. RESERVED; p. pr. & vb. n. RESERVING.] [Fr. réserver, Pr., Sp., & Pg. reservar, It. riservare, Lat. reservare, from re, again, and servare, to keep.]

Sense 1. To keep in store for future or other use; to withhold from present use for another purpose; to keep; to retain.

Hast thou seen the treasures of the hall which I have reserved against the time of trouble? Job xxxviii. 22, 23. Reserve your kind looks and language for private hours. Swift.

Sense 2. To make an exception of; to except. [Rare.]

In this same decree, which so remarkably reserves the abstinence from blood, the Sabbath is not all reserved as a thing either of necessity or expedience. Bp. Horsley.

Re-sērve', n.

noun

n. [Fr. réserve, Sp. reserva, It. riserva, riserva. See supra.]

  1. The act of reserving or keeping back.
  2. That which is reserved or kept back.

The virgins, beside the oil in their lamps, carried likewise a reserve in some other vessel for a continual supply. Tillotson. However any one may concur in the general scheme, it is still with certain reserves and deviations. Addison. 3. That which is excepted; exception. Each has some darling lust, which pleads for a reserve. Rogers. 4. Restraint of freedom in words or actions; backwardness; caution in personal behavior. My soul, surprised, and from her sex disjoined, Left all reserve, and all the sex, behind. Prior.

  1. A tract of land reserved or set apart for a particular purpose; as, the Connecticut Reserve in Ohio, originally set apart for the school fund of Connecticut; the Clergy Reserves in Canada, for the support of the clergy. Bartlett.
  2. (Mil.) A select body of troops in the rear of an army drawn up for battle, reserved to sustain the other lines as occasion may require; a body of troops kept for an exigency.

In reserve, in keeping for other or future use; in store; as, he has large quantities of wheat in reserve; he has evidence or arguments in reserve. Syn.—Reservation; retention; limitation; backwardness; reservedness; coldness; shyness; coyness; modesty.