starch

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A naturally abundant nutrient carbohydrate, (C₆H₁₀O₅)_n, found chiefly in the seeds, fruits, tubers, roots, and stem pith of plants, notably in corn, potatoes, wheat, and rice, and varying widely in appearance according to source but commonly prepared as a white amorphous tasteless powder.
2. n. Any of various substances, such as natural starch, used to stiffen cloth, as in laundering.
3. n. Foods having a high content of starch, as rice, breads, and potatoes.
4. n. Stiff behavior.
5. n. Vigor; mettle: "Business travel can take the starch out of the most self-assured corporate titan” ( Lisa Faye Kaplan).
6. v. To stiffen with starch.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Strong; hard; tough.
2. Rigid; hence, precise.
3. n. A proximate principle of plants, having the formula C₆H₁₀O₅. or a multiple of that formula. It is a white opaque glistening powder, odorless, tasteless, and insoluble in cold water, alcohol, or ether. Aqueous solutions containing free iodine impart to starch an intense and very characteristic blue color. It is not crystalline, but occurs naturally in fine granules, which are always made up of fine concentric layers. Whether the grains contain a small quantity of another chemical body, allied to but not identical with starch, called starch cellulose or farinose, is a disputed question. When heated with water to 60°-70° C., starch swells up and forms a paste or jelly. When heated in the dry state to l50°-200° C., it is converted into dextrine, a soluble gum-like body much used as a cheap substitute for gum arabic. Heated with dilute mineral acids, or digested with saliva, pancreatic juice, diastase, or certain other enzyms, starch dissolves, and is resolved into a number of products, which are chiefly dextrine, maltose, and dextrose—the last two being fermentable sugars. The malting of barley by brewers effects this change in the starch of the grain, and so prepares it for vinous fermentation. Starch is widely distributed. being formed in all vegetable cells containing chlorophyl-grains under the action of sunlight, and deposited in all parts of the plant which serve as a reserve store of plant-food. Hence grains and seeds contain an abundance of it, also numerous tubers and rhizomes, as the potato and the arrowroot, and the stem and pith of many plants, as the sago-plant. The chief commercial sources of supply are wheat, corn, and potatoes. From these it is manufactured on an extensive scale, being used in the arts, for laundry purposes, sizing, finishing calicos, thickening colors and mordants in calico-printing, and for other purposes. Starch forms the greatest part of all farinaceous substances, particularly of wheat-flour.
4. n. A preparation of commercial starch with boiling (or less frequently cold) water, used in the laundry or factory for stiffening linen or cotton fabrics before ironing. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the starch used for ruffs, cuffs, etc., was frequently colored, yellow being at one time extremely fashionable. Blue starch was affected by the Puritans.
5. n. A stiff, formal manner; starchedness.
6. To stiffen with starch.

Wiktionary

1. n. uncountable A widely diffused vegetable substance found especially in seeds, bulbs, and tubers, and extracted (as from potatoes, corn, rice, etc.) as 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.
2. n. nutrition, countable Carbohydrates, as with grain and potato based foods.
3. n. uncountable, figuratively A stiff, formal manner; formality.
4. n. countable Any of various starch-like substances used as a laundry stiffener
5. v. To apply or treat with laundry starch, to create a hard, smooth surface.
6. adj. Stiff; precise; rigid.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. rare Stiff; precise; rigid.
2. n. (Chem.) A widely diffused vegetable substance found especially in seeds, bulbs, and tubers, and extracted (as from potatoes, corn, rice, etc.) as 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.
3. n. Fig.: A stiff, formal manner; formality.
4. v. To stiffen with starch.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. 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
2. v. stiffen with starch
3. n. a commercial preparation of starch that is used to stiffen textile fabrics in laundering