reserve

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To keep back, as for future use or for a special purpose.
2. v. To set or cause to be set apart for a particular person or use. See Synonyms at book.
3. v. To keep or secure for oneself; retain: I reserve the right to disagree. See Synonyms at keep.
4. n. Something kept back or saved for future use or a special purpose.
5. n. The act of reserving.
6. n. The keeping of one's feelings, thoughts, or affairs to oneself.
7. n. Self-restraint in expression; reticence: "One feels it everywhere, a quality of reserve, something held back” ( Rollene W. Saal).
8. n. Lack of enthusiasm; skeptical caution.
9. n. An amount of capital held back from investment in order to meet probable or possible demands.
10. n. A reservation of public land: a forest reserve.
11. n. An amount of a mineral, fossil fuel, or other resource known to exist in a particular location and to be exploitable: the discovery of large oil reserves.
12. n. A fighting force kept uncommitted until strategic need arises. Often used in the plural.
13. n. The part of a country's armed forces not on active duty but subject to call in an emergency.
14. adj. Held in or forming a reserve: a reserve supply of food.
15. idiom. in reserve Kept back, set aside, or saved.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To keep back; keep in store for future or other use; preserve; withhold from present use for another purpose; keep back for a time: as, a reserved seat.
2. To preserve; keep safe; guard.
3. To make an exception of; except, as from the conditions of an agreement.
4. Synonyms Reserve, Retain, etc. See keep.
5. n. The act of reserving or keeping back.
6. n. That which is reserved or kept for other or future use; that which is retained from present use or disposal.
7. n. Something in the mind withheld from disclosure; a reservation.
8. n. Self-imposed restraint of freedom in words or actions; the habit of keeping back or restraining the feelings; a certain closeness or coldness toward others; caution in personal behavior.
9. n. An exception; something excepted.
10. n. In law, reservation.
11. n. In banking, that part of capital which is retained in order to meet average liabilities, and is therefore not employed in discounts or temporary loans. See bank, 4.
12. n. Milit.:
13. n. The body of troops, in an army drawn up for battle, reserved to sustain the other lines as occasion may require; a body of troops kept for an exigency.
14. n. That part of the fighting force of a country which is in general held back, and upon which its defense is thrown when its regular forces are seriously weakened or defeated: as, the naval reserve. In countries where compulsory service exists, as Germany, the reserve denotes technically that body of troops in the standing army who have served in the line, before their entry into the landwehr. The period of service is about four years.
15. n. A magazine of warlike stores situated between an army and its base of operations.
16. n. In theology, the system according to which only that part of the truth is set before the people which they are regarded as able to comprehend or to receive with benefit: known also as economy. Compare discipline of the secret, under discipline.
17. n. In calico-printing and other processes, same as resist, 2.
18. n. Same as reservation, 3.
19. n. Synonyms Retention.
20. n. Restraint, distance.
21. In ecclesiastical, to retain or preserve (a portion of the consecrated elements) for certain purposes.
22. n. In postal service, a fixed amount of cash retained at a money-order station to meet orders payable at that station.

Wiktionary

1. n. The act of reserving, or keeping back; reservation; exception.
2. n. That which is reserved, or kept back, as for future use.
3. n. A natural resource known to exist but not currently exploited.
4. n. Restraint of freedom in words or actions; backwardness; caution in personal behavior.
5. n. 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.
6. n. Canada A tract of land set apart for the use of an Aboriginal group; Indian reserve (compare US reservation.)
7. n. military A body of troops kept in the rear of an army drawn up for battle, reserved to support the other lines as occasion may require; a force or body of troops kept for an exigency.
8. n. finance Funds kept on hand to meet planned or unplanned financial requirements.
9. n. sports A member of a team who does not participate from the start of the game, but can be used to replace tired or injured team-mates.
10. v. To keep back; to retain.
11. v. To keep in store for future or special use.
12. v. To book in advance; to make a reservation.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To keep back; to retain; not to deliver, make over, or disclose.
2. v. Hence, to keep in store for future or special use; to withhold from present use for another purpose or time; to keep; to retain; to make a reservation{7}.
3. v. rare To make an exception of; to except.
4. n. The act of reserving, or keeping back; reservation.
5. n. That which is reserved, or kept back, as for future use.
6. n. That which is excepted; exception.
7. n. Restraint of freedom in words or actions; backwardness; caution in personal behavior.
8. n. A tract of land reserved, or set apart, for a particular purpose
9. n. A body of troops in the rear of an army drawn up for battle, reserved to support the other lines as occasion may require; a force or body of troops kept for an exigency.
10. n. troops trained but released from active service, retained as a formal part of the military force, and liable to be recalled to active service in cases of national need (see Army organization, above).
11. n. (Banking) Funds kept on hand to meet liabilities.
12. n. That part of the assets of a bank or other financial institution specially kept in cash in a more or less liquid form as a reasonable provision for meeting all demands which may be made upon it
13. n. (Banking) Usually, the uninvested cash kept on hand for this purpose, called the real reserve. In Great Britain the ultimate real reserve is the gold kept on hand in the Bank of England, largely represented by the notes in hand in its own banking department; and any balance which a bank has with the Bank of England is a part of its reserve. In the United States the reserve of a national bank consists of the amount of lawful money it holds on hand against deposits, which is required by law (in 1913) to be not less than 15 per cent (U. S. Rev. Stat. secs. 5191, 5192), three fifths of which the banks not in a reserve city (which see) may keep deposited as balances in national banks that are in reserve cities (U. S. Rev. Stat. sec. 5192).
14. n. (Life Insurance) The amount of funds or assets necessary for a company to have at any given time to enable it, with interest and premiums paid as they shall accure, to meet all claims on the insurance then in force as they would mature according to the particular mortality table accepted. The reserve is always reckoned as a liability, and is calculated on net premiums. It is theoretically the difference between the present value of the total insurance and the present value of the future premiums on the insurance. The reserve, being an amount for which another company could, theoretically, afford to take over the insurance, is sometimes called the reinsurance fund or the self-insurance fund. For the first year upon any policy the net premium is called the initial reserve, and the balance left at the end of the year including interest is the terminal reserve. For subsequent years the initial reserve is the net premium, if any, plus the terminal reserve of the previous year. The portion of the reserve to be absorbed from the initial reserve in any year in payment of losses is sometimes called the insurance reserve, and the terminal reserve is then called the investment reserve.
15. n. In exhibitions, a distinction which indicates that the recipient will get a prize if another should be disqualified.
16. n. (Calico Printing) A resist.
17. n. A preparation used on an object being electroplated to fix the limits of the deposit.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. something kept back or saved for future use or a special purpose
2. v. hold back or set aside, especially for future use or contingency
3. n. an athlete who plays only when a starter on the team is replaced
4. n. armed forces that are not on active duty but can be called in an emergency
5. v. give or assign a resource to a particular person or cause
6. v. obtain or arrange (for oneself) in advance
7. n. formality and propriety of manner
8. n. the trait of being uncommunicative; not volunteering anything more than necessary
9. n. (medicine) potential capacity to respond in order to maintain vital functions
10. v. arrange for and reserve (something for someone else) in advance
11. n. a district that is reserved for particular purpose